


season of the witch

by geniewish



Series: it's supernatural, baby [1]
Category: Monsta X (Band)
Genre: Breaking the Fourth Wall, Changhyuk, Crack, Halloween, Hyungki, Linguistic Fuckery, M/M, Mystery, Rough Sex, Smut, Supernatural Elements, Vampires, Werewolves, Witches, changki hyunghyuk showki wonhyuk platonic best friends, gore and mystery except it’s humour and satiric?, hyungkiheon, magical liberties taken, read a/n for tw, showho
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-10-13
Updated: 2019-10-21
Packaged: 2020-12-14 09:17:03
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 2
Words: 26,482
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21013397
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/geniewish/pseuds/geniewish
Summary: Let’s start in order of appearance: Changkyun, a chocolate milk addict with a craze for cool rifles; Kihyun, a full-time witch working part-time in sighing with disappointment; Hyungwon, a sumptuous Victorian gentleman; Minhyuk, a florist with blood-sucking tendencies; Hoseok, shines brighter than the sun; Hyunwoo, talks to ghost in his free time; and Jooheon, came out of an old detective film in just his sexy fedora and a mysterious glint in sharp feline eyes, as people like to describe.But, shortly speaking, a teenage supernatural romcom passed as an intriguing crime fiction that even Agatha Christie herself would be jealous of.





	1. The Fair Arc

**Author's Note:**

> oof my second entry for the halloween bingo for ‘halloween city’ square!
> 
> i wrote this with no pre-conceived plot whatsoever so it’s. rather strange and in a spur of a moment 
> 
> before u read: the character progression takes ages, wait til second chapter for useless scenes to dissipate a bit; it’s not slowburn i promise (??), and they’re not as stereotypical as they seem at first 
> 
> i have most of it written so i think the second chap will come round sooner
> 
> the title is taken from a cover lana del rey did on ‘season of the witch’!! the mood of the song is just It please listen to it it goes so well 
> 
> TW: blood, rough sex, violence  
just wanna say that they are supernatural beings, they aren’t as easily harmed which is why the sex is described as more extreme, it’s only bc they heal fast, and also the use of pain is consensual and pls don’t try that at home???
> 
> hope you enjoy though!!! leave me smth if you do)

“Vampires,” Changkyun slaps his hands on the table and widens his eyes dramatically, “vampires everywhere.”

Kihyun looks up from his book with a sleepy frown. “And the blood on your hands is?..”

“Not mine,” Changkyun says dismissively and goes to the bathroom to get a wet towel. Kihyun closes his eyes and sharply inhales to hold back a sudden surge of anger.

“You can just wash your hands in the sink, why dirty the towels?”

“Shh, we’re talking about the vampires.” Changkyun disregards the bloodied towel on the table and picks up his rifle. 

“And? What are you gonna do about them?” Kihyun sighs, exhausted.

Changkyun’s eyes sparkle madly in the dark of the living room when he raises the weapon and pumps the forend to make a threatening cocking sound. “Kill them.”

Kihyun breathes out like all the weariness of the world is weighing down on his shoulders, and stands up. “No, no, Changkyun, we are not killing vampires in this town,” he says like he’s gone over the same drill a thousand times before and approaches his aroused flatmate.

The other wiggles his eyebrows with a glint. “You sure about that?” He cocks the rifle again.

Kihyun takes the adult toy away from that overexcited child and carefully puts it on the table. “Changkyun, don’t forget your moon phasing, we are not killing anyone in this town.” Before he can grab the other by the cheeks and shake the madness out of his living being, Changkyun jolts back and hops to the fridge.

He takes out a carton of chocolate milk and hungrily gulps it empty. Kihyun sighs.

You might be wondering how I ended up in this situation, Kihyun wants to say. Well, let’s start from the very beginning. 

Kihyun was born on November 22nd, in 1987, which makes him twenty five years old as of now and a proud survivor of a quarter of a century. He’s been a witch’s apprentice in his hometown (Edinburgh) since he was four all the way until the first day of his adulthood, but then he was persecuted like the rest of the witches, warlocks, magicians, necromancers, satanists, snake-whisperers, you name it, because the end of the world was coming soon, and as old foretellers like to say, it’s always the dark magic that’s at fault, so connecting the government and the witch hunters together, you get a conclusion in a form of persecution of all deeds dark and cursed and people-non-people involved with them, and thus Kihyun was chased out of his motherland with the rest of the gang, which is why he ended up in New Orleans on the other end of the world (if the world at all), where he was stranded alone with a couple of voodoo witches, who only a couple years later told him that an old friend from his old clan moved to this little town in Pennsylvania where all the (quote-unquote) cursed creatures have been hiding, and, of course, because Pennsylvania sounds like Transylvania, where a famous guy Dracula allegedly used to live, they (meaning the oldest clan of witches since the beginning of times), conjured a little asylum for people and non-people like Kihyun to hide from the eyes of normal people, and this is exactly how he ended up in this town called Gravity Mills (not to be mistaken for _Gravity Falls_), and how, by skipping all the unimportant details, he ended up in this living room with Changkyun, who was now walking around shirtless because the chocolate milk he downed in three gulps spilled on his clothes, and––let’s take a breath. 

As much as Kihyun loves boosting about his personal life and his almost-Supreme-level witching abilities, he is not the main plot point of the story. No, this story is about fears, and murder, and forbidden bonds and blasphemous desires, this is a story about the end of the world, as irrevocably as it sounds, this is the story about creatures that rose from the dark and burned in flames, about the deepest nightmares coming to life and wiping all the good and holy on their way, it’s about death and love and living on the edge, and it’s also a little bit about witches like Kihyun that save the world at the very last minute before the world ends.

This is the story about a chocolate milk-addicted werewolf with a craze for cool rifles and a vampire who likes working part-time in a flower shop.

And, boy, does it involve more than just arranging a pretty bouquet for your first date. 

***

Sniff. 

The smell, this, ugh, mawkish, repugnant, fertilised smell coming from the kitchen four floors down, what it is? Some flowery, sugary, treacly, pink smell disturbing his long-awaited sleep, making frozen blood flow to his head and boil in his veins, the goddamn _stench_ turning his organs alive, oh dear god, it’s––

Hyungwon’s eyes widen. He sniffs louder. 

_Roses._

Unsticking himself from the ceiling, he jumps down onto the creaky wooden floor of the attic and forces his wings back into his shirt. Disturned beyond belief, he storms out the dusty old room, slamming the door open. He rushes down three flights of stairs and jumps loudly on every single carpeted step in the royal main hall of his mansion. He could dance tap in those shoes, wake up the bats, annoy the neighbours, if he so wanted. 

But when Hyungwon enters the golden marble kitchen, the annoyed one ends up being him, because Minhyuk is calmly humming a tune under his breath as he cuts the stems of big, bushy, pink, stinky roses above their porcelain sink, and doesn’t seem to share the other’s irritation and despise in the slightest. 

“Minhyuk!” Hyungwon exclaims, voice nasal and sleepy, and a hand rubbing under his nose does not do anything to make him sound a tad bit more assertive. 

The other smiles brightly at him, raising the despicable flowers in the air to show them off. “Hey! Long time no see.” Then Minhyuk gives the bouquet of roses the same radiant look. “Look at those beauties, I handpicked every single one myself.”

Hyungwon suppresses a gag reflex. “Minhyuk, I told you I don’t like roses,” he says sadly, desperate complain evident in his tone.

“But they’re so pretty? And look like me,” Minhyuk smiles even brighter, all gums and teeth and fangs and sparkles on his cheeks, and Hyungwon curves his eyebrows and tucks his chin under a growing pout. He looks like a duck.

“I told you, roses give me allergies,” he sniffs for emphasis.

Minhyuk sighs and purses one corner of his lips. His posture slumps immediately when he notices Hyungwon’s bleak maroon eyes. “Fine, I’m sorry, I’ll put them in the greenhouse.” He lays the flowers on the kitchen counter and approaches the other vampire to give him a hug. Then he frowns. “Are you wearing your Annual Shadow Ball outfit?” He asks, voice high-pitched, and tugs on the sleeves on Hyungwon’s scarlet embroidered silk shirt, way too fancy and expensive for something the other usually wears at home.

“Indeed, it’s the same outfit.” Hyungwon confirms, looking over himself.

Minhyuk gives him a kind of unimpressed look. “Hyungwon, that was a week ago.”

“Well, I was sleeping!” The other moans, flailing his arms uselessly by his sides. 

“For a week?” Minhyuk sighs again, disappointment blooming in his chest. “People might be wondering where you are.” He says quietly with a little pout. 

“No one’s wondering where I am,” Hyungwon mutters and brushes through his raven hair. His fingertips glisten with the thinnest layer of grease. 

“I wonder.”

“We live together.” The whole dialogue ends up being a little tragic. The tragedy is, Hyungwon’s mansion is located right at the end of the town, past miles and miles of driving through the dark forest of tall pine trees, and although Minhyuk had technically been living there for five years, he finds it easier to crash at Hoseok’s place during the work days and pop back home for the weekends. Easy for him to do, of course; Hyungwon’s been living in this house his entire life (his entire life compresses the length between the witch execution at the end of James I’s reign and up until now, the holy year of 2012), with a slight exaggeration.

Hyungwon sniffs, more from the growing allergy than the actual desolation at his best friend’s absence. “You barely even live with me at this point.” He hunches and walks to the coffee machine. 

Minhyuk pouts in deep ponderings and then smiles, coming to stand beside Hyungwon and leaning on the counter to look the other vampire in the eyes. “You’re right, but,” he holds a pause, making sure he’s got Hyungwon’s full attention. “I found us a great opportunity to hang out like in the good old days.”

Hyungwon presses the button, and the coffee machine starts with a harsh revving noise. Minhyuk waits for the brown liquid to fill a small ceramic teacup with a slight smile on his face. Huyngwon’s features deepen further and further into the usual melancholic state that’s never left him since the day he was turned. 

When the taller vampire takes a sip, Minhyuk continues. “Right, so, hear me out.” Hyungwon starts heading towards the set of cherry velvet couches in his crystal-walled living room. “The Witches Fair!” Minhyuk does jazzy hands in excitement, and Hyungwon sneezes, nearly spilling his coffee on the marble floor. 

With a sniff, he finally turns to the other guy. “Which one?”

“The Annual one! The end-of-summer one! Held at the end of every August, the entirety of Mills will be there.”

Hyungwon halts and looks up at the grande chandelier over his head. “Witches Fair…” he murmurs. He sniffs and resumes walking. “Haven’t been to one in ages.” 

Usually, when he says ages, he means at least a couple of decades. 

“See! Great opportunity to hang out.” Minhyuk settles on the couch next to the other. “Everyone will be there, and I’ll finally be able to introduce you to my friends.”

“But we’ll have to go in the evening, love,” Hyungwon says, a note of apology slipping past his lips. “English, remember, can’t be in the sunlight.”

Minhyuk smiles. “It’s alright, I always got you, buddy.” He hugs his best friend around the shoulders and nuzzles his hair. He turns away with a grimace the next second.

“No, Changkyun!” Kihyun turns off The Clash strumming out of tune guitars on their vintage record player and massages his temples. He needs to have a serious conversation with his flatmate, but he is wearing shorts and a stupid branded white t-shirt as his pyjamas, and he knows he doesn’t look at least a tiny bit convincing. “We can’t go to the Fair.”

Changkyun raises both assault rifles in the air, sickly glint igniting in his eyes with a mad grin. “Why not?”

He is just showing off, really, but Kihyun would rather be careful and snatch at least one of those fat machines out of the other’s grip. “Why? Because it’s in two days. You know what else is in two days? The Full Moon!”

The other doesn’t seem to process his words at all and continues posing with a rifle in front of the full-height mirror in their living room. He is wearing trackies and a matching white t-shirt. He doesn’t look convincing either.

“And?”

“And?” Kihyun sighs exasperatedly. “And––we can’t go because you’re in your,” he vaguely gestures over the other’s flexing shape, “hormonal stage.”

Changkyun puts the weapon down and smiles, still bouncing on his feet with an overflowing flood of energy. “I’m healthy, whaddya mean?” 

“You’re overly healthy, sweetheart,” Kihyun tries to explain, but the other already hops across the entire room, plops onto the couch and turns on the TV. Kihyun brings his eyes to the ceiling. “I have to organise the Fair but I can’t leave you alone, can you at least listen to me?”

Changkyun hums and decides on the Wii game he wants to play. Tennis. 

Kihyun looks over at him pitifully. “Why aren’t you ever chilling with your mates? It’s healthy for werewolves to chill with their kind.”

“Nah, I’m good,” Changkyun dismisses, swinging his arms around overly enthusiastically. He shouts victoriously when he scores his first point. 

The witch refuses to give up. “Listen, if you want the society to accept you, you have to mingle with those who are already socially accepted, which are the good werewolves, the ones that know how to control their,” Kihyun swallows, “hormones.”

Changkyun rightfully ignores him. 

With another painful sigh, Kihyun gives up. Mumbling something under his breath, he sharply sways his hand, and the Wii remote, still hanging around the other’s wrist, smashes into Changkyun’s right eye. He exclaims in pain and holds onto his face. 

“Ow, what was that for?” He whines, but Kihyun is already walking away to his room. 

Last blissful days of summer, and the weather couldn’t be better. The sun is shining, the sky is clear, the grass is green, the birds are singing, the sales are high and Hoseok is humming a cheerful folklore tune to himself with a light smile. 

Fixing another little bouquet in his hands, he approaches Hyunwoo standing on the tall ladder. When Hoseok looks up with a happy squint, all of the sunlight gathers in the kind wrinkles on his face, making him shine bright like a diamond. Hyunwoo looks down and extends his arm to catch another batch of flowers. Hoseok throws it in the air, and it levitates right into the other’s hands. 

“Do you reckon Kiki will come help us?” Hoseok asks, still squinting up at the other man, who is very busy and concentrated on fixing the flowers to the pole. 

Hyunwoo shrugs. “However would I know,” he mumbles. His lips are forced forward in an unconscious pout. 

“Bit sad he, Kihyun,” Hoseok starts again. “Got a werewolf living in his apartment. I thought he would move out after a couple of weeks but,” he raises his upper lip, “couple of months later and he is still teething on his slippers.”

Hyunwoo jerks his shoulder in a little laugh.

Hoseok is insistent about not coming back to his flower carriage. “Gosh, I ever told you? The other day I was passing by the cemetery to lay some flowers and saw three graves completely rumpled? Someone dug out the coffins and left holes right under the tombstones, I mean, who even does that?” He shares with a slight crack in his voice. “Think we’ve got unregistered ghouls in the area.”

The other looks for comforting words. “I’m sure it was just someone’s family trying to bring the dead back to life, happened before.” Hyunwoo nods to himself and fixes a ribbon around the bouquet that Hoseok must’ve missed. 

“Yeah, I hope so,” the witch says, still refusing to go back to work. 

_For context_, Kihyun would add were he narrating this part of the story too, _these two actually like each other but are too self-conscious to admit it, yadda-yadda, clap your hands and watch all that awesome friends to lovers romance they are missing out on, unfold from the distance._

Hyunwoo steps down, deciding the setting good enough. He walks Hoseok to the carriage, when suddenly, the sky darkens with thick grey clouds. Rustle of leaves and low whispers of the wind around them, ghostly steps and phantom screams in the distance, fire of the bullets and terrified gasps before their eyes. Hyunwoo turns around, peering towards the main road that leads to the end of the town. 

But, of course, it’s only him that sees it. 

“Hm? What is it?” Hoseok asks, unsuspecting of nothing. 

With a blink, the foresight disappears. “No, nothing,” Hyunwoo assures and turns back to the other man, giving him a small smile. The sky clears out again, and Hoseok beams up at the sun. 

At the very end of that same road, right under the ‘Welcome to Gravity Mills’ sign, hiding in the grey veil of fog, Hunter-Inspector Jooheon Lee takes a long drag of his cigarette. With a squint of his sharp feline eyes, he steps over the white line of the magic border. The mist breaks apart to let a few rays of sun slip onto the paved road. 

“Well, well, well,” Jooheon Lee victoriously mutters. “Here we go, Gravity Mills.” The click of his gun escapes into the coddling clouds. His steps are echoed along the road, heavy and confident and bringing ill omen. His drops a still lit cigarette on the ground, letting it burn out like hopes of the citizens he’s come to mess around with. 

On the other side of the welcome sign, his figure is seen no more. 

Changkyun smiles maniacally. “Hunting?” he asks, raising a massive shotgun in the air. He tugs the forend with a glint in his eyes. 

Kihyun, bent over in the foyer, gulps and takes off his shoes. “No, thanks.” He says and makes a way towards the open kitchen, when the other guy shrugs casually and cheerfully marches to the front door. “And neither should you!” Kihyun calls after taking a sip of water. 

Changkyun sulks and whines. “Why?”

“Because we are not killing vampires in this town, Changkyun.” Kihyun rolls his eyes, “Moon phases, remember, you’re not yourself?” He tries to remind his flatmate, but all it does is sends the werewolf into a sad overdrive. 

“But I’m hungry-y-y,” he bounces on one place like a toddler, and then something in his eyes clicks back to normal. “For blood,” and just for the sake of it, cocks the gun again. 

Kihyun contains a deep sigh within him. “Changkyun, all I asked for today was go grocery shopping since I was bu—hold on,” he presses two fingers to his temple and frowns. “Yeah?” Changkyun raises one eyebrow. “Now? I dorn’t think I can, I’m babysitting.” Changkyun rolls his eyes. “Ye… ye sure?” Kihyun stutters, and his face scrunches in an extremely concerned look. “Okay, I’ll ginger by in a sec, just need to put a lasagna into microwave and I’m oan mah way.”

Changkyun’s face goes through ten thousand stages of annoyed. He’s seen the witches pull that telepathic trick more than enough, he’s tired of pretending to be impressed, no matter how serious the frown on Kihyun’s face is. 

“Hyunwoo called, said it was an emergency.” Kihyun opens the fridge and takes a pack of premade food, worry never leaving his face. 

“I don’t want lasagna,” Changkyun complains again, the shotgun hanging uselessly from his loose hold. 

“Apparently someone is trying to compromise our Fair.” The other ignores his roommate’s whining and shoves the box into the microwave. 

“Fuck your lasagna.” Changkyun exclaims and spits on the floor, like some kind of bad guy who likes it all rough and tough and stands with his chest always so puffed, or however the lyrics go. 

Kihyun walks up to him with fast steps, a twitch of anger distorting his features for a brief second. He approaches the werewolf face-to-face, graciously easily done as they are the same height. “No one,” he emphasises, “messes up with our Fair.” Changkyun gulps. The microwave dings, and Kihyun smiles as intimidatingly sweetly as a human can. “Your food’s ready.”

With these final words, he goes to put his shoes on again and leave his werewolf roommate alone to his lasagna. 

“Fuck your lasagna!” Changkyun shouts after the door slams shut and then puffs out, looking around uselessly like a dog waiting for his owner. 

“Minhyuk, I have a problem.” Hyungwon enters his vast living room and grimaces, realising that it’s still daylight out there. Minhyuk is sitting on the couch, unbothered, watching telly and munching popcorn with a blood bag on the side. “Don’t think I’ve gone mad but,” the older vampire sits next to him and musters a concerned expression, “but I think someone’s been eating my livestock.”

The other turns to squint at him sceptically. “And how would you know?”

“Carl told me.”

“Who?”

“Carl, my raven friend.” Hyungwon says seriously. 

Minhyuk holds a pause. “You make friends with ravens?”

Hyungwon blinks. “Yeah.”

“Right, anyways,” Minhyuk rolls his eyes and shifts around to face the other man. “Even if it’s true, why would anyone eat your chickens? There’s no one in the area for miles.” Before Hyungwon can answer, Minhyuk smiles dismissively. “And, I mean, even if your livestock has decreased in size, how are you so sure they’ve been killed and not stolen?”

“Well,” the older vampire straightens, ready to spill some tea. “How about because there are traces of blood in the barn?”

Minhyuk’s aura immediately changed. “Well, should’ve started with that!” He sits up and slaps his knees. “That’s it, your sheep have gone cannibalistic.”

Hyungwon widens his eyes ever so slightly. “I don’t think that’s quite possible, love.”

The other gives him a deadpan stare. “Fucking hell, Hyungwon, take a joke.” Minhyuk shakes his head disapprovingly and starts fiddling with the cuticles on his fingers. “What do you want me to do anyways? Investigate?”

A hint of upsetness flashes in Hyungwon’s eyes. “It’s my livestock. All I ever asked for was some consolation.” He clicks his tongue bitterly and slumps in the couch. “Everyone in town is eating my eggs and drinking my milk. I would appreciate it if you had some empathy for my friends.” He curls more into his warm wool cardigan. “For all I know, it could be werewolves.”

“Werewolves haven’t been killing for a living for decades,” Minhyuk states. “It’s the twenty first century, get over your Victorian principles already.”

Hyungwon doesn’t let the reprimand get to him and instead gives Minhyuk a conspiratorial side eye. “You’re aware the Fair is in two days.”

Minhyuk scoffs, still picking at his nails. “‘Course I do, I was the one who told you.”

“You know what else is in two days, dear?”

A few beats of silence pass before Minhyuk raises his head with wide eyes. “The Full Moon.”

Hyungwon sighs. “We are heading out as soon as the sun sets and only stay for an hour, if you don’t mind. I will not disgrace myself to mingling with some… creatures.”

“Oi, watch it, batman,” Minhyuk scolds teasingly. “Some might say the same thing about you.”

The older vampire scowls, showing off his Dracula fangs. “Grr, fear me, newbie.” 

Minhyuk turns to him abruptly, his eyes go fully black and dark veins pop under the skin. He opens his mouth full of long, sharp, dangerous canines, leaving only his two front teeth unarmed, and hisses. A second later he turns back to the TV with a pout. Hyungwon kind of shudders. 

“Ur ye sure it was the raven of death ye saw?” Kihyun asks after giving a bouquet of lilies a nice sniff. 

“Shh!” Hyunwoo shushes him with an angry frown and nods in the direction of the back room. Kihyun cringes in apology. Basically, they can’t let Hoseok know about the foresight because he’ll get really-really worried and might start accreting into a bush of flowers. 

Once Hyunwoo settles a pot of hortensias where it’s meant to be, he approaches the other witch. “Aye, Ah’m sure,” he says quietly. “I cannae mistake th’ feelin’ fur anythin’ else.”

Kihyun presses his lips together to think. “But, but, but hoo dae we fin’ oot who or whit it is ‘at threatens our toon?”

“Ah dunno,” Hyunwoo replies regretfully, lowering his head with a tough sigh. 

“Nae a body, and I repeat, _nae a body_ can ever mess up our Fair––”

“But,” Hyunwoo interrupts Kihyun’s uncommenced threats, “Ah will ken when Ah see it. Trust me, I will ken. Mah senses hae ne'er betrayed me afair.”

Kihyun curves his eyebrows skeptically. “Remember 'at a body time Hoseok grew ye a bunch ay red roses an' brooght them tae yer hoose fur tatties an' neebs, but ye thooght he was jist bein' braw coz yer hoose is tay minimalistic fur his taste, when aw 'at time he was tryin' tae gie ye in b––” .

“Besides!” Hyunwoo interrupts again, straightening and looking around the shop. The way a tender blush crawls up his cheeks doesn’t escape Kihyun’s sharp stare. “I like tae befriend actually useful spirits, say, martyrs ‘at died fur th’ sake ay savin’ th’ crops when Americans laid their rail ower puir people’s homes, or satanists ‘at hud platonically intimate connections wi’ th’ Devil himself––”

The bell above the entrance door cheerfully dings, announcing of a customer, and before both men can turn around and greet him, Hyunwoo bends down to whisper one last threat. “An’ Ah dinnae,” he emphasises, “make friends wi’ loove deities. Good afternoon!” He gently says as he turns around on his heels, hands clasped behind his back. Kihyun sighs and does the same. 

The man that enters the shop is wearing a long trench coat and a dark grey fedora hat, and when he smiles back at the duo, his dimples shine so brightly it’s almost suspicious. “Good afternoon,” he raises his sexy hat in a half-bow and approaches the first stand with flowers. Kihyun decides him boring and finds himself a nice quiet corner to stare at his phone for a bit. 

Hyunwoo shuffles around, excited about a customer and getting ready to advertise the wonders of nature to the best of his ability. He approaches the stranger. “Looking for anything?” He asks with an easy smile, gentle and not prying at all. 

The other smiles back at him. “Nah, not really, just looking around,” he shrugs, but something about the way he nasalises his vowels further catches Hyunwoo’s attention. He rushes a small talk quickly through his head to make sure it sounds appropriate and tries again.

“I don’t think I’ve seen you around before, sir. Came to our town for a visit?” Gravity Mills is a vast and yet a small place where almost everyone knows each other. Not to remind that not any random hitchhiker can cross the invisible border. 

“Yeah, went round to see some friends.” The stranger answers warmly, dimples never leaving his cheeks. “Heard it’s a cool place to visit.”

Hyunwoo smiles so his eyes crinkle heartily. “Indeed it is.” He decides it enough of small talk and takes a respective step back. “I’ll leave you to it, call me if you see something you like.”

“Thank you,” the customer says and pursues his lips so the dimples deepen even further. 

The scene should ideally finish here. However, after a few minutes of uselessly strolling around, Jooheon in his detective trench coat and a sexy fedora, sneakily turns his head ever so slightly to glance at Kihyun dumbly brooding in the corner. Twitching his nose like a cat, he casually crosses the shop and stands by the flower stand next to the hunched man. Jooheon gives him another side eye and sniffs. 

Kihyun looks up from his phone and offers a polite smile. “I’m not an employee,” he says with a slight shake of his hand. 

Jooheon smiles back and mouths ‘S’alright’ in understanding. And sniffs. Their roses are so delightfully aromatic. 

With a friendly nod towards Hyunwoo, Jooheon leaves the flower shop and goes on his own way. 

The very next day, Kihyun comes back home from his early shift in the nursery to Changkyun’s insistent pondering. 

“Is it just me or there’s something important I’m forgetting?” The werewolf says, hand on his chin as if he were some kind of Socrates. He is standing in the middle of the room in his boxers and a white t-shirt that’s going to turn orange soon with all the cheese balls stains on it. 

Kihyun drops his bag on the floor and takes off his shoes. “Oh yeah?” He asks almost passive-aggressively. “And if I told you I was picking up your sister from school for three days in a row?” His shoes fly up and pitifully land upside down. 

Changkyun gasps. “I forgot to pick up my sister from school!” He shouts, eyes widening with panic. And then he frowns like a teenager reading Charles Dickens in class. “Wait, why are you doing it for me?” And then takes a sip of his strawberry milk Kihyun has no idea where he got from.

“You’ve been,” he sighs, kind of deflating. He has no heart to scold the little wolfie. “Sleepwalking,” he vaguely gestures his hand on his way to the kitchen, “and then passing out in the middle and sleeping until lunchtime. You’re up early, by the wa––”

“Is she okay?” Changkyun exclaims, materialising next to Kihyun in exactly two seconds. “Are those dumb fairies treating her well?”

Fire ignites at the bottom of Kihyun’s eyes. “Shut your stinky canid mouth up,” he raises a knife to Changkyun’s chin, “those fairies are the cutest beings in the world and you are _not_ allowed to say a single bad word about them.”

Changkyun gulps, staring at the sharp end of the weapon in the witch’s hand. “Cool.”

They go to pick up Changkyun’s sister together. 

“Oh, come on, Liv,” the werewolf groans, angrily dropping his arms in defeat. “I’m being a good brother here, have a little respect.”

The girl makes a face at him. “Do I look like I wanna hang out with my brother of all people? I’m not a _loser_,” she emphasises with a roll of her eyes. Kihyun quirks an eyebrow in the background. Olivia is still going through puberty.

“Say that again?” Changkyun snarls, bending down to look more intimidating.

“I’m not going to the damn Fair with you!” Her nasal voice rises in pitch just a teensy bit.

“Then who else are you gonna go with?” Changkyun’s voice follows her example and breaks at the end of the question.

“Ugh,” Olivia groans softly, “go away, Dan, I’m an adult.”

Changkyun grimaces so much his face gets almost unrecognisable. “What the fuck, Olivia, you’re a high school senior, in what world is that an adult?”

Olivia turns around dramatically. “Ugh, bye,” she says and walks to her friends with arms crossed over her chest. 

Changkyun angrily raises and drops his arms again with a very loud sigh. “Olivia!” All the girl does is click her tongue, and her friends cheerfully stick to her on either side. Changkyun growls quietly in his throat, and Kihyun comes to stand next to him and pats him on the shoulder. 

“She’s hanging out with the wrong people,” the werewolf complains, throwing one final death stare at the three girls. “Fucking fairies.”

Kihyun squeezes his shoulder ever so slightly. “Knife, Changkyun,” he gently mutters.

The other zips his mouth shut. 

Minhyuk sighs, “I want a boyfriend.” A pout that tugs on his lips makes him look like a cute little duckling. 

Hoseok plops on the couch next to him with a bowl of salad. “Me too,” he says in consolation with the kind of smile that makes Minhyuk want to pinch his cheeks.

“But you already have someone in mind,” the vampire moans further. “I don’t.”

The other’s smile always disappears as soon as Minhyuk switches to his whiney voice. “You’ve got a whole eternity to find someone, sweetheart.”

“Hyungwon’s nearly four hundred years old and he’s still single,” Minhyuk retorts pitifully and then curls into himself as the gloomy doom coldly looms over his head. “All he does is sleep and mingle with,” he swallows, “chickens,” he adds quietly with a note of terror in his voice and suppresses a full-body shiver creeping up his limbs. 

“I would be delighted to meet him one day,” Hoseok says, crunching on his lettuce. 

“I’m dragging him outside for the Fair, but we’re only coming when the sun is set.”

Hoseok frowns, very puzzled. “But you don’t burn in the sunlight?”

“He’s old English,” Minhyuk explains with a heartfelt roll of his eyes. “They didn’t have sun in the Middle Ages.” Hoseok nods with a silent ‘ah’.

“He must be quite ill then. Bring him some of my veggies,” he cheerfully suggests. If Hyungwon’s livestock is feeding the whole town milk and eggs, then Hoseok’s vegetation magic is feeding the whole town, well, organic stuff. 

Minhyuk gives the witch a sad look. “You really think he knows what veggies are?” He presses his lips together in a commiserating smile. 

Hoseok’s eyes gently glint with growing tears. He copies Minhyuk’s expression in understanding and sighs. 

Kihyun––yes, he’s appearing a lot for someone who’s claimed to not be the main character, but we are getting there––finally meets Minhyuk at the flower shop when he pops by to exchange a word with Hyunwoo. 

To clear the confusion, both men had a fair share of years spent in Gravity Mills wandering about and doing their own business, but Minhyuk spent his free time glued to Hoseok’s side at the flower shop or in the greenhouse, whereas Hyunwoo doesn’t even work there full-time, and Kihyun only feels the need to hang out with the medium from his old clan back in Edinburgh if it involves alcohol and no vampires. It’s not like he has anything against them, it’s rather the opposite––they make amazing rag dolls for witchcraft experiments because the motherfuckers just wouldn’t die no matter how many limbs you cut off and sew back on (make sure a blood bag is present though, otherwise the OG Vampire King back in Transylvania would be rather cross), but when it comes to peaceful hang outs, Hyunwoo is the only man fit for such an occasion––well, not always, he loves to space out sometimes and fall into deep discussions with ghosts and spirits that he keeps forgetting aren’t bloody visible to the rest of the world, but that’s details and Kihyun really doesn’t think it necessary to mention that one time Hoseok tried to confess his feelings after two years of uselessly brooding about it, and that <strike>dumb</strike> Gemini man fell into one of his deep trances where all he heard was a bunch of dead animals making plans and plots on consuming human flesh to possess their bodies, and then spent the next day treading round the town with a deep frown because he tried to figure out how exactly these foxes and bunnies wanted to accomplish such a fascinating task, thus leaving Hoseok hanging with words of confession he’s been gathering for years––can someone please bring Kihyun some water, his throat gone dry. 

Anyways, although many years of constantly stumbling over each other’s scents (or auras) have passed, Kihyun meets Minhyuk today for the first time. Very briefly. He stumbles into the shop, looking for Hyunwoo to help him and Jihyun make sure the Fair is perfectly ready for tomorrow, but casts his eyes on Minhyuk instead. Minhyuk, being a vampire and all, smells something dodgy about the witch but says nothing until Hoseok comes out a second later. Kihyun mouths, “_Where is that dumb bum_?”, to which the other witch wildly gestures, “_Went out five minutes ago, hurry,_” to which Kihyun sighs with widened eyes and raises his palms up, “_Where?_”, after which Hoseok shrugs, “_I think he saw a ghost,_” which makes Kihyun even more exasperated as he mimics, “_He sees ghosts on the daily, it’s not ne––_”

“He’s at the cemetery,” Minhyuk cuts in.

Kihyun folds his palms together and shortly bows his head. Before he leaves, he gives Hoseok a glance with a disapproving shake of his head. Hoseok shrugs his shoulders and mouths an offended “_What?_” with a scandalised expression.

A wise person once said that everything happens for a reason. Perhaps, Kihyun seeing Minhyuk and Minhyuk seeing Kihyun in person has a much greater effect on the daily course of life in Gravity Mills than it seems. Hyunwoo starts to suspect something unwelcomingly lethal as soon as Kihyun comes panting to him, drenched in sweat and also anger.

For a very brief second, for just one insignificant count of time, his vision blurs with flashes of red and grey and pink and white, with noises of distress and noises of whatever’s the opposite of distress, something akin to contentment if he can interpret it right, and he does not like it. When the cryptic foresight disappears, he blinks and carefully stores it at the back of his head.

He turns to Kihyun but doesn’t yet look at him. 

“Wa ur ye,” the witch breathes out harshly, “at th’ ceme… cemete…” he pants with his tongue out (a habit he picked up from Changkyun), and only then remembers that he is, in fact, a witch, and with a clap of his clammy hands conjures a generous bubble of air in his lungs. He straightens. “Cemetery.”

Hyunwoo finally sees him, but his expression remains disquieted. “Somethin’,” he twitches his mouth, unsure of what he is meant to say, how he is meant to explain the unexplainable. “Somethin’s bin diggin out th’ graves,” he shakes his head, “eatin’ them, mibbe, ah dunno. Desecratin’.” 

Kihyun curves his eyebrows. “Whit, ye think we goat ghouls in town?”

Hyunwoo makes the kind of face like it’s hard for him to explain exactly what he thinks. “An’ nae simple ones at ‘at.” He sighs and gives up. “Anyways, I’ve got a bad feelin’ abit it,” he says but when he approaches Kihyun, his eyes crinkle with a smile. “But I do feel guid abit the Fair.” And with that he awkwardly pats Kihyun on the back and walks towards the exit from the cemetery.

Kihyun decides to resort to sighing and follow the other man out. 

The Moon is almost full. 

And its ghostly light creeps along the wooden floor through the window, sliding on its tiptoes as to not make a sound nor a creak, to remain a pale phantom presence in the house, to stay in the night for as long as the sun allows for. Softly and quietly it seeps through the thinnest crack in the curtains and spreads like dust on the carpet, frail and yet stubborn. 

With a gentle sway of the curtains, the light crawls further into the room, reaches for the edge of a blanket on the bed, grabs onto it, lifts itself up onto the covers. Like a mother’s tender hand, it caresses the lump under the sheets with care, as if to wake up her child for school. The light might never walk towards the crumpled pillows, might never blow into closed eyes and colour peaceful breathing in white, but the loving touch of the Moon dribbles through the fabric and softly tickles the ankle that was buried under it, and it’s enough. 

Changkyun wakes up.

Widening his eyes abruptly, he harshly inhales and grips the pillow under his palms in reflex. He listens to the silence in his room; hears Kihyun breathe over the wall, hears the fridge buzz, hears the flies plotting murder on the windows. Everything is normal, everything is how it’s meant to be. 

And then he relaxes and sighs in devastation. He has been awoken.

Changkyun grumbles under his breath and scurries on his feet. “Go away,” he mumbles, annoyed, and swishes the curtains closed again. Upset about losing his sleep in the middle of the night, he rubs his eyes, sleepily contemplates his existence, hoarsely grumbles again and waddles out of his room to the kitchen. 

Kihyun got him a stack of chocolate milk, but Changkyun can’t be asked feeling grateful for his flatmate when he can just grab a whole carton and down half of it in the fit of hunger. And yet somehow, it doesn’t please his stomach.

“Ah, stop it,” he mutters, feeling tingles run down his neck. He slaps his nape a couple of times, and the tingles move all the way down to his tailbone. “Ugh,” he groans quietly and shakes up, starting from his head and shoulders and finishing with each limb separately, like a dog. 

A growl settles in his throat, but he contains it behind tightly gritted teeth, which in turn start itching so much Changkyun wants to scratch his gums until they bleed. 

“Snap the fuck out of it,” he hits the back of his head once, twice, three times, until it’s mainly pain spreading through his nerves and not the lust for blood he isn’t even supposed to feel. He sadly puts the milk back in the fridge. “Fucking moon phasing,” he bitterly says, stratching his head. 

Changkyun only manages to toddle to the middle of the living room before another tingle stings his ears. He turns his head to the row of windows so fast he could’ve snapped it and, paralysed, watches the curtains gently swish in tune to weak air conditioner. He knows when it’s calling him; and right now, this ain’t it. 

He takes a tentative step towards one of the windows, takes another, takes the third, takes however many he needs to be able to touch the fabric and hesitates before dragging it to the side. The moonlights allures him, tickles him, illuminates him in white, sings him a song and settles in his irises, but as far as he is aware, the light does not have a smell.

And yet he smells something that isn’t supposed to be there. 

But when he looks down onto the street, all that greets him is an imaginary tumbleweed and a friendly wave of dust on the road. Not a soul in sight.

Strangely, this newfound paranoia helps him sleep through the rest of the night. 

Perhaps it wasn’t a soul Changkyun should’ve expected to see. Already sound asleep, he doesn’t smell or feel Jooheon stepping out into the moonlight in the middle of the same empty road and looking up at the same exact window the werewolf was standing in. 

He doesn’t see Jooheon raising his sexy fedora ever so slightly to uncover a predatory glint in his eyes, doesn’t see a hollow of his dimple appearing when he grins to himself so inconspicuously, doesn’t see him holding onto the edge of his hat and walk away just as invisibly as he came around. 

Everyone in town peacefully sleeps until the morning of the Annual Witches Fair.

Minhyuk comes to check out the setup of the event on that massive lawn in front of the Town Hall and mentally celebrates Hyungwon’s future defeat at the astonishingly persistent smell of flowers.

“Thank you so much for helping!” He hears Hoseok happily say to some local witches. Hyunwoo wanders around beside him with a polite smile stuck to his lips. “Thank you so much for coming! Hope you enjoy! Ah, please, the Wooden Stake darts game is just down this line of stalls. Of course, all deadly conjugations are taught today at five, don’t forget to bring an item or a being of sacrifice of your choice!”

Minhyuk frowns and decides to smoothly move away from potential danger. He is not old enough to become some disfigured witchcraft experiment. He passes by stalls with food, smells hot dogs and burgers in the air, slurpees and ice cream, pancakes and waffles, silver and verbena––silver and verbena?

Stopping in his tracks, Minhyuk listens to the scents around him. Silver moves, slowly, at human pace, which means it doesn’t pose any apparent harm as of yet. Somewhere to his left, mixing with aromas of fresh dough and sugar, chocolate, roses, it moves in Minhyuk’s direction. It’s a chaos of smells, sweet and organic, but the verbena stands out like a burning house in the middle of a calm street. There is a legend that it’s poisonous to vampires; well, life isn’t a TV show though, is it. 

In a second, the stingy smell of silver clouds his nostrils, and his eyes automatically move towards what he can only guess is the source. A sexy grey fedora is hiding the stranger’s face, his hands are buried deep in the pockets of his trench coat, and his steps are quiet, relaxed, like those of a big cat crawling to attack. Minhyuk hasn’t seen such a hat on anyone before in this town.

And yet he lets the stranger pass by him, as if paralysed. The trace of silver and verbena fades away with each retreating step. Minhyuk snaps out of it when someone bites into their succulent golden waffle right next to him. 

Maybe mediumship is infectious, he thinks, and Hyunwoo had just passed him his gift of foresight. 

“Can we go now?” Changkyun moans, stomping on one place. 

“I am,” Kihyun mutters through gritted teeth, “trying to put a protection spell on you so you don’t turn out of nowhere.”

Changkyun rolls his eyes. “Boring.”

Kihyun slaps his spells book shut. “If you kill half of vampire population in this town, I’m gonna sentence you to death by exile.” He threatens in a strange monotone, and the werewolf does nothing but quirk his brow at that.

“We’re leaving long before the Full Moon, dude.”

And, honestly, Kihyun knows that it’s just the phasing, that Changkyun isn’t quite being himself, but, damn, the motherfucker really gets on his nerves. He trudges towards him with loud heavy steps, stares him right in his dumb mindless eyes, curls his hands into fists, and then just puffs out.

“I care, Changkyun,” Kihyun honestly says. “I care for your safety, and I get angry when you don’t put at least a little bit of effort into appreciating it.”

Changkyun’s face remains as unperturbed as ever. “Grr,” he rolls his tongue over his teeth, “sexy,” and then proceeds to wiggle his eyebrows. Kihyun holds a pause with a tired impenetrable stare and conjugates his heavy spell book to fly right into the other’s nose. The werewolf cries out in pain, and Kihyun walks to put his shoes on. 

Before the events of the Fair can truly unfold, there is just one little thing left to show for the sake of prolonging the key moment of the day. While Changkyun can happily salivate around the food stalls and wiggle his imaginary tail after every win he scores in shooting games, Minhyuk has a bunch of other things to take care of. 

That is, of course, waking Hyungwon up to get ready.

“Ew, do you drool in your sleep?” Minhyuk exclaims as he raises his foot up from a stain of something slick and sticky on the floor. 

Hyungwon jerks away, and his dark widened eyes peek from inside the cocoon of his bat wings. He jumps down to Minhyuk’s disaffected stare and crouches next to the little puddle on the floor. “I have reason to assume that this is just my snake’s skin melting from heat.”

“You turn into a snake?” Minhyuk asks, scandalised. 

“No, I have a snake,” Hyungwon replies calmly. “She likes to stay with me in the attic while I take a nap.”

Shuddering, Minhyuk turns around to leave. “We’re leaving in an hour, can you get ready in time?”

“I am ready,” Hyungwon proudly announces. 

Minhyuk gives him a skeptic look-over. “Pyjamas from two days ago, uncut nails, a smudge of blood in the corner of your mouth, greasy hair and,” he quirks one eyebrow, “don’t forget your wings, batman.”

Hyungwon clears his throat and politely wiggles his shoulders, and the wings retreat back into his shirt. It isn’t really possible to politely wiggle a certain part of one’s body, but Hyungwon manages it like a rightful Victorian gentleman would. “I’ll be right back.”

While the ancient vampire paces around the mansion in search of clothes, Minhyuk hides in the greenhouse to, first, contemplate his existence and then water the flowers. Not that he can’t do both simultaneously. 

Pots with roses and dahlias are blooming better than ever, orchids are still reaching for the sun like it’s all they ever know, daffodils are blindingly white and lavender smells like heaven on earth. There are delicate musing plumerias, bushes of fluffy peonies, there is a little tub with a single lonely lotus, and a bouquet of cockscomb because Hoseok laughs at the name every time he grows one and Minhyuk has to take the flowers away. 

He tenderly caresses carved petal of pink camellias, admires the way red cannas flame in the last rays of sun, and loses himself in the variety of carnations sorted into pots by colours: red and pink and peppermint and yellow and various mix of those inking ends of every shabby petal. It makes him sad. He really wants a boyfriend. 

Someone who he can give his pretty flowers to on a weekly basis, someone who would bring him blood on one of those days and cuddle him to sleep disregarding of the cold radiating from Minhyuk’s skin. He wants someone with a pretty smile and warm hands to hold, someone who smells nice and shares his passion for anime, someone who plays music of his youth and has a nice bum. And, finally, someone who doesn’t keep a freaking wooden stake at home. 

How many times must a modern man repeat that those don’t work on twentieth century vampires. 

Hyungwon coughs politely from somewhere within the house. He may be immortal but he doesn’t want to entertain the thought of being choked to death by undying allergies. 

When the sun is fully set, they drive into the sunset in Hyungwon’s white Mustang. 

“God,” Changkyun half-groans, half-moans, “these are so good I can come right here and then.” Chocolate sauce drips from the corner of his mouth. 

Kihyun gives him a pitifully disgusted look and suddenly loses appetite for his own waffle. “We’ve wasted thirty dollars on food already, can you at least review it a little bit nicer?”

Changkyun moans around another bite. “As good as human flesh.” And instead of getting terrified, Kihyun only sighs and tries to find himself a distraction in case code red emergency really happens. The terrified one ends up being Changkyun, his eyes widen in panicked realisation and he stops chewing, his throat bobs as he swallows and air stops getting in and out of his big bumpy nose. He slams the back of his head, hard enough for Kihyun to hear his brains bump against his skull. “Snap out of it,” the werewolf mutters. 

“I’ll fetch us some corn dogs,” Kihyun says and gets lost in the crowd, leaving Changkyun alone to enjoy his nutella waffle on a sober head.

Right when Kihyun leaves, Minhyuk and Hyungwon make an appearance. Fitting in with the rest of the folks, Changkyun doesn’t notice and doesn’t find it important to notice the presence of two more vampires among the generously vampirish masses. No, he is too engulfed in biting into the most delicious sugary batter in the world to hear Minhyuk go, “Oh, blood sausage! From Germany!” and skip right behind him. No, all that matters to him is the sweetest chocolate paste dripping from his lips and settling on his tongue like drugs, and he can’t care less about where Kihyun is, or how many vampires are at the Fair, or why does it smell so much like silver––

Silver. 

The waffle falls from his hand onto the ground. 

“Here, have this one––oh, come on, Changkyun, I paid three dollars for it!” Kihyun’s voice reaches him through the fog of paralysis and whispers of his spidey sense. Everything mixes into one big mush of noise in the background. There is ringing in his ears. Dust whirls up in his chest, and he wants to growl it out. 

“Whatever,” Kihyun’s distorted grumble comes to him from behind. “Oh, Minhyuk! It’s Minhyuk, right? Hey, have you seen––”

It has been said by an anonymous wise person before. Perhaps, Kihyun seeing Minhyuk and Minhyuk seeing Kihyun in person back then in the shop has had a much greater effect on the daily course of life in Gravity Mills than it was credited for. You see, when Kihyun left a stunned werewolf alone to talk to the other lead of the story, it lead to much more than just a chat about the ridiculousness of Hoseok’s stake shooting game.

Changkyun smells something dodgy in the air. When a werewolf smells something dodgy in the air, you never leave the said werewolf alone. 

Oh, no, Changkyun would never be able to contain the strongest desire to retrieve his claws back out on his own. He feels his rib cage expanding, he feels his head brains grow gooey, he feels his eyes sting with molten amber, and there is no way he is able to fight the lustful desire for animalistic freedom. 

The smell of silver surrounds him, the Moon tinkles barely halfway above the horizon, and there are just so many motherfucking vampires in this town it makes his canines itch. He breathes harsher, pants, so constricted in his own body he wants to claw his skin, and while Kihyun is far away, he can let himself loose. Oh, how much he craves this bloodthirsty liberty. 

Carnal growls scratch his throat, his eyes turn yellow and bright, and if he doesn’t open his mouth, his teeth might pierce through his lower lip. He can’t hold it in anymore, he can’t keep the animal inside, he can’t let a murderer walk around freely in town he calls his own, but he needs, he needs his wolf to find him. 

Changkyun growls, pained, and looks up to the dark starry sky. Kihyun stops blabbering his life away, and the crowd stops in its tracks and stares at the werewolf in his turning. When he catches on a stinging trace of silver, he sharply lowers his head and scowls. 

With a jump forward, he turns.

The folks cower and run away in fear, screaming. Food stalls are forgotten, children on the rides are shouting for their mommies, stakes are raised in the air and dropped as soon as the monster rises on his hind legs, tall and broad and massive compared to all those miserable people and non-people too. 

The smell of silver drives Changkyun insane, and imagine how insane _that_ would be when his mind is nothing more but a cacophony of screams and thirst for blood. God, no, he won’t be able to satiate it till he rips the throat of the owner of silver bullets.

Kihyun stands there by the abandoned stand with imported sausages and cheeses, mouth slowly opening in shock he hasn’t yet processed. Minhyuk and Hyungwon are paralysed for the same reason. And Changkyun is brooding, searching, growling with fury and growing hungry with all this vampire smell in the air. Run, cowards, run, he wants to shout, and they do, disappearing from the Fair in two seconds with their evolutionary vampire speed.

Only Hyungwon stays in his place, fascinated by the creature he thought were extinct. 

He suddenly doesn’t feel the same fascination when the werewolf turns to look at him abruptly, and his unbeating heart falls to his guts. Changkyun starts running towards him.

Kihyun shouts for him to get back, grabs Minhyuk by the arm and escapes the attack of the monster, but Hyungwon’s been alive for too long to know what the fuck to do when a rabid werewolf expresses his very obvious desire to kill you, and he just so happens to fall right under the big canid mouth. He puts up a fight, punches the creature in the neck, dodges a set of terrifyingly sharp canines aiming for his head, tries to get up but gets thrown back onto the ground by a pair of sharp dirty claws. 

There are screams of his name, there is an invisible bubble of protection stretching over him, conjured by the witch in a second, and yet the werewolf pushes through, almost bites into his throat but misses as Hyungwon turns over. Kihyun tries to send things flying into Changkyun’s feral wolf face, but he knows shit like burning hot dogs and barbeque sticks do very little to hold back an angered monster. 

Suddenly, cold long arms wrap around his middle, squeezing him so painfully hard he almost coughs his tongue out. Minhyuk _raises_ the werewolf in the air, breaks his spine with the strength with which he pushes him off the other vampire, and Changkyun does not manage to writhe out of his hold before he is being harshly tossed across the aisle of food stalls. He bumps into a wooden construction and breaks it in half, and himself with it. 

As dust is raised into the nightly air, his form is seen no more. For a good beat of silence, it’s calm, save for everyone’s shattering breaths. 

Something hoarsely groans from under a wooden balk, and Kihyun rushes to get human Changkyun from under a collapsed food stall. Minhyuk sticks himself to Hyungwon’s side, ready to protect his old man with a hostile pout on his lips. They both get a little tense when Kihyun finally drags someone onto the ground and pulls him on his feet. 

Changkyun, surprisingly, isn’t naked, if anyone’s curious. He’s still got his ripped trousers on, but his top was torn to shreds. But it’s the last thing that concerns him when he gets on his feet and looks around with a face of a person who just came out of a bunker in the middle of a zombie apocalypse. He is distressed. Really distressed. And doesn’t understand what just happened. 

“What did I do?” He asks quietly-quietly, barely containing a shiver in his voice. Kihyun only sighs, exasperated, grabs him around the wrist and stomps towards the two vampires. Changkyun scrambles after him with an extremely puzzled frown between his eyebrows. “What, what?”

“Apologise,” Kihyun mutters through gritted teeth and then offers an almost sincere apologetic smile to Hyungwon and Minhyuk. The two look over a very confused and kind of terrified Changkyun with precaution. “I am so sorry, he isn’t normally like that,” Kihyun excuses. He doesn’t really need to ask a vampire if he’s okay seeing as he is, well, a vampire. Hyungwon only presses his lips together in a polite smile and manages a little nod. “He’s a natural-born,” Kihyun tries to sound casual, “he’s still got his moon phasing.”

Both Minhyuk and Hyungwon’s eyes widen. “He’s a natural-born?” They ask in unison, incredulous. Changkyun is still too fazed to remind them that he is, in fact, right in front of him.

“Yeah, he’s a bit unusual, I’m so sorry,” with that, Kihyun squeezes Changkyun’s wrist a little tighter.

“I thought natural-born werewolves were extinct,” Minhyuk says, impressed, and looks over Changkyun like he’s seeing a new kind of human being. Hyungwon’s massive cartoon red eyes are gawking so intensely it’s like they are looking right through him.

Ah, right, it’s probably worth mentioning that Hyungwon is a part-time mind reader when he feels like it. He really peaked at vampire evolution at the time. 

“Found him and his sister wandering around the mountains outside of Mills a while ago, apparently natural-borns are dependent on the Moon for the first couple of months, or years, since their first, so I’m helping him out,” Kihyun amicably explains, like he’s proud to have a domestic werewolf at home, and Minhyuk hums, amazed. 

“No wonder then. I do hope Hoseok won’t––”

All that basic chit-chat fades out in the background as Hyungwon finally enters the realm of telepathy. And he smiles, smiles warmly and kindly, endeared by the little topless werewolf that’s giving Minhyuk a confused stare at his simple blabbering. 

“Changkyun, you gonna apologise or not?” Kihyun asks and shakes the wrist in his clutch. “You attacked Hyungwon here out of nowhere, if it wasn’t for Minhyuk he’d be injured.” Changkyun brings his free hand to his ruffled hair and tries to calm the ring in his head. 

Hyungwon smiles brighter. “Don’t worry about it, love, I understand him very well.” Palms over his chest, he gives Kihyun the kind of polite look that says that they better go before Minhyuk realises that he should actually be angry about the whole situation. 

“What? But––” Minhyuk tries to cut in.

“It’s alright, we’ll see you around anyways.” Hyungwon does a cute little wave at Kihyun and his domesticated werewolf and watches them leave hand in hand with a fond smile. 

“What was that about?” Minhyuk asks, a little frustrated. “We just witnessed a rabid werewolf in the middle of the Annual Fair––a big event, for you to know––and you just let them leave without any financial compensation?”

Hyungwon sighs kindheartedly. “He is just a teen inside.”

“What?” Minhyuk grimaces.

“It’s just the phasing. He doesn’t even realise himself after all.” Hyungwon sighs again like a disney prince longing for his loved one on his royal balcony in the middle of the night. “Just a little wolfie,” he adds quietly, and if he could, he would blush with the amount of endearment he feels. Minhyuk scoffs.

While it’s obvious the Fair is ruined, a spark of something new and wholesome still flies towards the night sky and tells the gossiping ghosts about its assumptions about the very good, very passionate, very promising future


	2. September 13th Arc

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> And now let’s start in order of events: Hyungwon’s mansion and foreshadowing romantic dialogues; Hoseok and Hyunwoo, still toeing around; no more foreshadowing and just straightforward romance written in style of a classic Roaring Twenties novella; conspiracy circle; September the 13th and the night when not only the dead rise from their graves, but a fight that might potentially drag someone alive underground. And, well, Jooheon, still as suspicious in his sexy grey fedora and a loaded gun. Hell cuts loose.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> TW for mild violence in this chapter, please proceed with caution!
> 
> i read over it and realised how rushed and illogical the whole work is but, well, one can say it's the author's great design innit
> 
> hope you enjoy!! leave me smth nice if you do)

September the 13th. The night when all the things dark and cursed raise from the graves and haunt the town until the first rays of sun chase them away. In Gravity Mills, this celebration is widely observed, and this year, the wholesome year of 2012, the vampires of the town have the honour to set it up. 

September the 13th is in thirteen days, which makes it a perfect amount of time to go back to idle comedy and peek into Kihyun’s living room where he and Changkyun get ready to head out and formally apologise to the vampire the latter involuntarily attacked the night before. 

“Can’t you just go on your own?” Changkyun whines, shoulders slumped and lips turned down in a frown.

“You are the rabid werewolf, not me.” Kihyun retaliates and makes sure all the chocolate boxes are carefully tied with a shiny ribbon and packed into a pretty souvenir bag. Changkyun eyes it skeptically.

“Isn’t it weird if I go,” he tries again, shuffling around the place like a lost dog.

Kihyun, habitually, sighs. “Changkyun,” he approaches the other and gives him a consoling look. “In this country, we apologise for our mistakes.”

“Yeah, yeah, b-but,” Changkyun shuts his mouth when he unconsciously stutters and gulps. Kihyun raises his eyebrows, prying the other to continue. Changkyun stares at him blankly for the next couple of seconds, and then his face flushes to the tips of his ears, red like a tomato. “I’m embarrassed,” he quietly confesses. 

Kihyun smiles softly. “I’ll hold your hand if you want.” And with that, walks to put his shoes on without indicating for the other guy to follow. He knows he will. 

In the grande mansion on the very edge of Gravity Mills, Hyungwon is huddled on the couch with a blood bag and some Spanish soap opera on the telly, while Minhyuk is cutting stems of freshly gathered tulips over the sink in the kitchen. He is humming a simple folklore tune under his nose and doesn’t hear a car pulling in the driveway with an obscene fart of the motor. 

“Minhyuk!” Hyungwon calls. “Check who’s arrived, s’il te plaît!” Don’t roll your eyes, he is from post-Tudor England, he knows French among other languages too. 

“Fine!” Minhyuk shouts back and gives a few flowers heads a gentle smooch. “Can’t even get any peace in this house, can I?” He whispers at the plants. “Mmm, Hyungwon’s demanding, isn’t he.” He mindlessly mumbles. “Not an easy life I lead, huh.”

“I can hear you, love,” Hyungwon shouts again, then cough and sniffs and sneezes, mentally cursing his allergy. 

The bell rings. Minhyuk finally puts the tulips down and speedwalks to the massive entrance door. Opening it without much effort, his eyes widen in genuine surprise when he sees a cheerfully smiling Kihyun and a shyly waving Changkyun on the marble doorstep. 

“Hiya! We came to offer our proper apologies!” The witch says and gestures with his cute souvenir bag with chocolates in it.

Hyungwon comes into the foyer with a slack jaw. Kihyun waves at him too and smiles so hard his eyes seem to vanish off the surface of his face. All Changkyun does is purses his lips in a polite smile that forces his little dimples out, and––

Oh, it seems like nothing at all. Just Changkyun, with his small round face and honey blonde hair and sharp-shaped eyes, offers a polite tight smile and flashes adorable dimples that have no effect on Kihyun anymore. But to Minhyuk, who sees the tiny werewolf for the second time in his life, reacts with more than just a slight part of his mouth at the softest expression. 

His heart skips a beat too. And, no, it doesn’t matter that it’s still twenty-four-seven anyways. 

And then, the impossible happens. They finally talk. “Hi! Come in, please,” Minhyuk says with a smile and gestures for them to get inside. Changkyun smiles in his direction and comes in. 

Well, they almost talk. 

“I brought some gifts for the sake of reconciliation,” Kihyun proudly announces and strangely awkwadly extends the bag to Hyungwon. “I hope you like chocolate?” He asks rather than states, and almost curls into himself seeing the tall vampire’s blank face. 

But Hyungwon politely accepts the gift, looks inside for a brief second (during which Kihyun’s palms managed to grow clammy) and when he raises his head again, a lovely smile beams on his face. “Thank you!” His red eyes sparkle, and Kihyun can’t help but smile back with a slight sigh of relief. 

And then he comes back to his senses. “Right, sorry, Changkyun didn’t manage to say what he wanted to say the other night, but now he can!” Kihyun smiles towards the werewolf seemingly amicably, but a glint of raging flames flashes at the bottom of his pupils. 

Changkyun swallows when three pairs of eyes fall on him expectantly (in reality, the vampires don’t really care about some superficial words of apology, but they have a feeling Kihyun won’t leave him alone if he doesn’t at least try). “Well, I’m really, uh, sorry,” he says with his voice deep and sexy and unnaturally raspy, and nods to his own words. “Yep, very sorry for attacking you during the Fair, I definitely didn’t mean to.”

Hyungwon suddenly perks up and smiles. “Don’t worry about it, love, it happens.”

Kihyun is in the process of rolling his eyes when his gaze falls onto the massive TV screen in the living room. His jaw dislocates. “You’re watching _Te Sigo Amando_?” His voice cracks, and he, as if enchanted, walks straight towards the couches like it’s his own house. 

Hyungwon follows him with a bag of chocolates pressed tightly to his chest. “Everyone has those telenovela moments at least once in their lifetime, don’t they.”

Their chat fades out in the background as Changkyun and Minhyuk awkwardly stand in the golden foyer and throw each other polite little glances. And, god bless, it finally happens. “How’s your…” Minhyuk starts, “moon phasing?”

Changkyun looks him in the eyes and directs his words at him only. “It’s alright,” he nods a few times. “Turned once, now I’m good.”

They fall into a moment of silence. “I’m Minhyuk, by the way,” the vampire extends his hand and Changkyun doesn’t hesitate to take it and squeeze it well. Minhyuk almost shivers at how impossibly warm the other’s palm is. 

“I’m Changkyun,” the werewolf introduces himself rather unnecessarily and shows his dimples again as a sign of friendliness. Minhyuk wants to poke them. 

Then they stand a few feet apart again, unsure of where to start. Minhyuk swears he isn’t usually like that. He just kind of remembers the way Changkyun’s torso looks under his shirt and can’t help but occasionally steal a few glances at his cute little chest. “Sorry about almost breaking your ribs, by the way,” he says with a little awkward laugh.

Changkyun waves offhandedly. “Don’t worry about it.” They indulge in cricketing silence again.

“Do you wanna-a-a-a-a see my greenhouse?” Minhyuk asks, barely casual and not a tiny bit smooth, but it’s enough to ease the atmosphere and drag a genuine smile out of the other guy. 

“Sure.” And with that, they take a whole detour around the billion-dollar mansion and finally cross the line of overdue introductions.

“So how did it happen that you’re a natural-born and not an afflicted?”

“Well, you know, there are werewolves that not only have sex but also know some fertility spells, so combine the two together and you get a whole pack of chronic lycanthropes.”

“Oh, lord, this sounds like the best Halloween story ever, tell me more…”

Back in town, Hoseok sighs as he picks up another wilted bouquet from the ground and looks at it regretfully. He is a little bit sad, but at least no one died. At the end of the day, Changkyun is one of a kind. 

Hyunwoo helps him pile all the heavy stuff into garden carriers and clean the Town Hall yard of any spilled food. Seeing the witch’s slumped posture, he approaches with a little comforting smile. “It’s okay,” he says, “everyone enjoyed it.”

Hoseok smiles his puffy-cheeked smile. “Yeah, guess you’re right,” he sighs again and looks at the poor little roses. 

The other man leaves the carrier and stands behind him, and after a few moments of hesitation, awkwardly puts his hands on his shoulder. “Ye deserve a break,” Hyunwoo lightly squeezes bulging muscles, and Hoseok immediately relaxes into the touch. “I can make ye dinner at my place. If ye want,” he belatedly adds. 

He doesn’t see Hoseok’s blushing cheeks. “Sure. That would be rather splendid.”

Hyunwoo spreads in a very kindhearted smile at the other’s answer.

You might be wondering, well, love is in the air, roses are blooming, birds are singing, America still stands its grounds, but where is Jooheon? Well, you came to the right place to ask. 

Jooheon, after the tragic fiasco at the Fair, exchanged his dark grey fedora for a light grey fedora and went sniffing round the town. He went past the flower shop, snooped past Kihyun’s apartment, followed the traces to Hoseok’s house, befriended some fairies the other day, and after such an extensive research he finally finds himself on the road laid through the tall forest leading right to Hyungwon’s vampire mansion. 

Grinning under the brim of his sexy fedora, he starts his black Dodge Charger ‘68 and follows the scent imprinted in his nostrils. 

Evening has settled over Gravity Mills.

“And that’s my mom, she was, like, my dad’s band groupie. She died when I was a kid, so it was just dad that raised me, but then he died of cancer in the late 70s, so he never copped me as a vampire.” Minhyuk points at a pretty young woman on a photograph. “I love to joke saying I was a result of groupie love, but one can say the same about my turning, so it kinda lost the innocent parental meaning.” He sighs and closes his photobook.

Changkyun smiles, amused beyond belief. “I can’t believe you were turned by Nikki Sixx himself in 1982 on one of their early gigs,” he jiggles a little; he hasn’t talked to a lot of vampires who used their immortality for the right things. “I wish I lived through that period, must’ve been awesome.”

Minhyuk smiles too, all gums and fangs. “Yeah, it was pretty cool. I wish I was born before hippies though, I missed such an iconic generation.” They laugh about Minhyuk’s reminiscing together, sitting cross-legged on the floor of his bedroom with just two cosy orange lamps on. “What about you? I heard you’re an orphan too.”

“Yeah, dad was never in the family, he was sort of an alpha or whatever, so he, like, fucked chicks and left immediately after. Mom lived with witches her whole life, got turned after a ritual because my dad was a natural-born and she wanted to be werewolf too, so she had me first, and then had my sister with another guy, then immigrated here. I’m not sure if he was a werewolf or just sick in the head, but Olivia’s a lycanthrope too, apparently.” Changkyun explains, unconsciously fiddling with his fingers. 

“But she hasn’t turned yet?”

“Yeah, no, my sister’s seventeen, so she still got time. It happens at its own pace, I turned when I was twenty and still suffer from,” he rolls his eyes and mimics quotation marks, “moon phasing.”

Minhyuk laughs wholeheartedly. “I get you though. I was so thirsty the first couple of years after turning that I was ready to burn myself at a stake.”

Changkyun’s eyes widen and his jaw goes slack in surprise. “That bad?”

“That bad. Speaking of blood, you wanna get some food downstairs?” Minhyuk puts one hand to his stomach and pouts. 

“Sure.”

They hop down the stairs like overexcited children, lowkey giggling about Hyungwon’s extravagant marble interior design. Minhyuk feels at ease and lighthearted around the werewolf, which, as he recently realised, isn’t a feeling he gets to experience a lot due to his unsatisfied loneliness.

Oh, scratch that. He’d rather be lonely forever than blissfully live to witness what he’s witnessing the moment he barges into the kitchen. In the dark of the room, Kihyun, pressing Hyungwon into the counter and rising on his tiptoes, and Hyungwon, digging his spidery hands into Kihyun’s back and ripping out the other’s hair, are going at it like rabid bunnies with… rabies. They’re not even making out at this point; they look like they want to merge at the mouths and exist as one cellular substance, constantly and continuously biting off the other’s lips while levitating in the air. 

Minhyuk grimaces so hard he would get permanent wrinkles if he wasn’t already immortal and forever young. Changkyun mimics a gagging reflex and does it so well he genuinely wants to gag. Then the couple on the counter separates. Hyungwon, blood-eyed and distressed, looks at Minhyuk. Minhyuk looks at Hyungwon. Kihyun, flushed and ruffled, looks at Changkyun. Changkyun looks at Kihyun. The four look at each other. 

Before the only witch in the squad can gather enough breath to shout something angry about privacy, Changkyun runs straight out of the kitchen, Minhyuk following suit a second later. 

“Disgusting, bleh,” Changkyun grimaces and sticks his tongue out. 

“And they were just watching soap operas!” Minhyuk exclaims, high-pitched. The two find themselves outside of the mansion on the beautiful expensive porch and settle down on the stairs.

“Kihyun’s so fucking unsexy,” Changkyun bitterly mutters.

“Hyungwon’s four hundred years old,” Minhyuk adds, disgusted. 

“He’s four hunderd years old?”

“He’s four hunderd years old.” Minhyuk confirms. “Nearly.”

Changkyun silently mouths a ‘wow’.

To sensibly cut out on the awkward in the post-scene, let’s move onto the moment Kihyun and Changkyun get into the car after exchanging phone numbers with the vampires and promising to meet some time soon. 

It’s grown dark outside. In the middle of an empty forest road, the flatmate duo is driving in comforting solitude. But things aren’t always the way they seem. It’s seemingly empty, seemingly comforting until ghostly yellow lights of another car on the oncoming blink in their direction. Kihyun slows down. The car slows down too. They’re getting closer. They’re close. 

As they drive past each other in slow-mo, Kihyun lowers the window to suspiciously look at the owner of an old vintage car, just as the owner of the old vintage car lowers his window and glances at Kihyun with a mysterious squint of glinting feline eyes under a sexy grey fedora. 

When the playback speed of the scene goes back to normal and the cars peacefully part ways, a spark of suspicion ignites at the back of Kihyun’s mind. 

Kihyun might have said he is not the main character here, but how can he skip on the opportunity to brag about his newfound friend-slash-we-made-out-so-lets-go-on-a-date-mate and the beginning of their very important conspiracy theories regarding the recent events in Gravity Mills. 

“So,” he plops on the chair in front of a tall figure covered in expensive silk fabric head to toe. Hyungwon’s still holding a black umbrella over his head as they’re sitting under a massive white umbrella on the terrace of the cafe they agreed to meet at, his head is hidden under a checkered black and white Hermès scarf, black Chanel sunglasses cover his face and black riding gloves over his overly long hands protect him from the raging daylight outside. Hyungwon, a vampire, looks witchier than Kihyun, an actual witch, could ever wish to look. Not to mention his well-fitted black trench coat and black polished Oxfords.

“So,” Hyungwon echoes, slurping his iced Americano. 

“First of all, thank you so much for agreeing to come so early in the day,” Kihyun immediately changes the tone of the uncommenced conversation to a lighter one and smiles when he fully realises who’s in front of him. “Got this job in the bar on the weekends, you know, whew, don’t have time.”

“Oh, c’est rien, darling, I understand.” Hyungwon smiles cutely.

“Anyways, you texted me last night because you felt like someone was snooping in the forest around your house?” Hyungwon nods. “Well, I think I know who it was.” Kihyun takes out a drawing he did messily the night before, and points at a sexy fedora and long trench coat and deep hollows of dimples on a badly depicted face, and if he could see under the big sunglasses, Hyungwon would totally be squinting. 

“Sam Spade?” Hyungwon asks, thoughtful. 

“No, Hyungwon, life is not a detective film from early forties––oh my god, he looks like Sam Spade,” Kihyun turns the drawing towards himself and gapes at it like an idiot. 

“Dinner and fim date tomorrow night?” Hyungwon suggests.

“You got a collection of old noir classics?” Kihyun quirks one eyebrow and smiles in the corner of his mouth. 

“More than that,” the vampire leans in, “I’ve still got cassettes.”

Kihyun inhales through gritted teeth. “That’s so sexy.” But before he can lean in even further and make his lip bite obvious, he comes back to his senses and returns to the conspiracy. “Anyways! So, Sam Spade here is sneaking around the town, that is a hypothesis I will attempt to prove true. How? Evidence one: I saw him come into Hoseok’s flower shop the other day. What is so suspicious about that? Well, first of all, he’s got a Southern accent, I’d say the man’s a Texan, and, pardon me if I may be incorrect about that since I am not a US national, but Texas is a long way away from here for anyone to just pop by to visit some friends. Evidence two: hypothetical, yes, but,” he raises his hands to emphasise that he might be in the wrong, but a hypothesis is a hypothesis, whatever it might be, “it could be the most crucial argument in the theory. 

“Think back to the Fair. What caused Changkyun to suddenly turn without a warning? The Full Moon, yes, but here is where my expert knowledge comes in. According to the Great Grimoires of Agnes Watsone ay Dumbarton, arguably the greatest witch grimoires in the entirety of Europe and inarguably the most detailed and diverse guide to lycanthropic magic, natural-born werewolves aren’t actually affected by the Full Moon until the state of deliriousness. Werewolves, as all animals, have a much stronger sense of danger, meaning they are most likely to react with aggression as a means of self-defence. Hypothesis: perhaps Changkyun sniffed something dodgy about our Sam Spade guy, which caused him to act the way he did. Apologies once again, by the way, I swear he’s not usually like that.

“Anyways, evidence two, or three, I’m not sure: survey of witnesses. When the man in question entered the shop, Hyunwoo was there. After the man in question left the shop, Hyunwoo told me that he doesn’t know anyone here that has friends from the south. Furthermore, Hoseok confirmed that anyone, I repeat, anyone who enters the shop, leaves with at least one bouquet of flowers or a plant. Don’t ask me why, it’s highly illegal vegetation magic, secrets of which I cannot reveal under any circumstances due to the witch’s vow I took when I was seven, but anyway, the witnesses claim that Sam Spade left without buying anything. No one,” Kihyun lightly slaps the table, “no one ever leaves without buying anything. Theory? He knows how to avoid magic. Anyone who isn’t from Gravity Mills and knows how to avoid Hoseok’s advanced magic is suspicious, and therefore, we need to take immediate action. Thoughts?” Kihyun sits back and relaxes, crossing his hands on his stomach. 

Hyungwon slurps the rest of his coffee, cheeks sucked in almost inappropriately (not that Kihyun minds), and releases the straw with a loud pop. “Have you tried asking Changkyun about what was it exactly that he sniffed?”

Kihyun squints and holds a few beats of silence. He opens his mouth. “Ah,” is all that comes out.

“I personally think he is the key element to unraveling the mystery of what exactly our man in question is after, so you should spare a minute and survey the potentially most important witness in our investigation,” Hyungwon says, mindlessly breaking ice cubes in the plastic cup.

The squint never leaves Kihyun’s eyes, but now he adds a curl of a flirty grin to his whole seducing expression extraordinaire and hums airily. “He is not only handsome and has a good taste in cinema and wine, he is also very clever and rather eloquent.”

Hyungwon raises his eyes and doesn’t yet dare smile back. “I’ll tell you more, he is also pretty knowledgeable in history and art and has met a few rather remarkable people over the course of his lifetime.” 

Kihyun leans in and puts his elbows on the table. “Will he show me around his very own hall of fame then?”

“He’d be quite pleased to, I believe.” And then, without skipping a beat, “Shall we move the dinner date tonight?”

Kihyun barely resists suggestively quirking an eyebrow. “Why wait for dinner?”

Hyungwon’s face tenses really hard in attempts to withhold a smile. “My car’s parked right up the alley.”

Kihyun smiles in amusement for them both. “Now that’s a modern man talking.”

The vampire cheerfully nods in the direction of the street, and the two happily leave into the warm September afternoon. 

Love is in the air, Hyunwoo’s unfriended love deities would say, which is why Minhyuk parks his motorcycle right under Kihyun and Changkyun’s apartment windows and revs it a few times to announce his safe arrival. Changkyun swings the curtains to the side and looks outside, and a bright smile paints his features. 

A minute later, he runs out of the house and literally flies to his newfound vampire friend he doesn’t want to kill. 

“Going my way, doll?” Minhyuk asks in a forced low hoarse voice and wiggles his eyebrows. 

“Is there any other way to go, daddy-o?” Changkyun replies in the same tone and fixes his sunglasses. Minhyuk beams the next second.

“Ha, you’ve watched _Doctor Who_!” He exclaims as the werewolf climbs onto the backseat and hugs the vampire around the waist.

“And you have too!”

“Fucking love the Brits.” Minhyuk starts the engines and just like that, without bothering with helmets for reasons as simple as their supernaturality and degrees of immortality, they roar into the busy streets of Gravity Mills. 

Warm afternoon breeze ruffes their hair and gently slaps their cheeks, and Changkyun doesn’t resist the urge to stick his tongue out. He coughs when a fly gets caught in his mouth and hides his face in Minhyuk’s shoulder blade. They roam through the entire town until the houses disappear and it’s just a narrow tangled road ahead of them, leading up the hill into the dimming sky. 

Where the path ends they get off the motorcycle and with combined superhuman effort push it up the hill to the very top. It’s the highest point in town; from there they can overlook the vast valley behind them and the tall forest before them, fold the entire Mills in their palms and even see a faraway river flowing outside the town. 

Minhyuk fishes a blanket and a few boxes with food from his bag, spreads it on the dry grass and settles down, grunting like an old man. Changkyun hops to sit beside him. 

“You come here often?” He asks, rummaging through the snacks. All he finds is sandwiches, fruits and homemade guacamole with nachos on the side. ‘With love and care, Hoseok~♡’, the note says. Changkyun gets out his small packet of chocolate milk.

“Sometimes,” Minhyuk replies and pokes a blood bag with a metal straw. At least he cares for the environment. “Hyungwon doesn’t like leaving the house before sunset, and Hoseok is too busy taking care of, well, nature, I guess, so it’s rare that I come alone.” He takes a gulp and looks very pleased with the taste of AB positive. “Now I can drag you though,” he adds with a cheeky smile. 

“Hit me up whenever, buddy,” Changkyun mumbles with full cheeks and stuffs the rest of the sandwich into his mouth.

Minhyuk puts on some music on his phone, and they sit in the mellow relaxed atmosphere for a while, only chomping of food, slurping of drinks and Lana del Rey’s magical voice disturbing the silence. 

“Oop, it’s starting,” Minhyuk sits more comfortably, and when Changkyun looks up from a nearly finished box of nachos, his mouth falls open at the view. The sun is slowly setting behind the horizon, colouring the sky in orange and coral and pink and lilac as it takes the daylight away. Fluffy clouds turn into a mix of pastel and grey, and a flock of late birds fly above their heads chasing the last rays of sun. 

Changkyun lays his head on Minhyuk’s shoulder and rubs the side of his head on the bone. A light smile is lingering on his lips. Minhyuk peeks at him and smiles too, suddenly filled with so much fondness he imagines himself flushing. He doesn’t hold back the urge to scratch the back of the werewolf’s head. The second his blunt fingers brush through the honey locks, Changkyun shudders and opens his mouth in a pleased gasp, closing his eyes. He melts into the touch, pleased beyond his physique. His mellow smile curves further. 

“You like that?” Minhyuk asks, amused, and scratches harder.

Instead of a reply, Changkyun almost giggles and sticks his tongue out. He squirms at the stimulation and rubs on Minhyuk’s shoulder some more. _Yes, human, keep going,_ he wants to bark out. 

“Are you a dog?” Minhyuk snorts lightheartedly.

Changkyun hums a yes, and his left leg starts jiggling. 

“I’m kidding, I love dogs.” MInhyuk’s fingers travel to his neck and back to the crown of his head. 

“You’ll love me then.” Changkyun giggles in his throat as the pets start to pleasingly tickle. 

Perhaps this statement is more than just a cute remark. Perhaps September likes to bring out the most foreshadowing replicas out of the protagonists to keep the intrigue smooch and accessible to people of all generations. 

With the last minutes of the sunset, Changkyun grows a little sleepy on Minhyuk’s comfortable shoulder. “You feel pretty alive for a vampire.”

Minhyuk gives him a cheeky side glance. “Well, I’m not a living dead, I’m just immortal.”

“Sexy,” Changkyun mutters and snores. Minhyuk blooms from the inside and nuzzles the top of the werewolf’s head too. He wants to give him a smooch. He is immortal anyways, so the means of time don’t quite exist for him. It could’ve been a day since he met the other, or it could’ve been a year, but at the end of it all, everything has the same conclusion––act now before they turn old.

Minhyuk almost falls asleep to his romantic daydream when he smells something dodgy in air. Opening his eyes, he stares into the distance, peeks into every dark corner under the pine trees, catches onto every moment around the hill. It’s the kind of smell that would make his hands clammy and his heart pick up a rhythm, and he has to find the source before Changkyun wakes up.

There’s a rustle of tree branches below, and while Minhyuk only manages to perk up, a dark phantom figure disappears into the shadows of the forest. Changkyun weakly raises his head and blinks sleep away from his eyes. “What,” he slurs, confused. Minhyuk stays straightened, on guard, attentive. And yet he sees nothing anymore. 

“Let’s go, it’s grown dark.” He stands up and gets ready to start packing, but seeing a still very dazed and sleepy Changkyun, smiles and offers him a hand.

When they recklessly race down the hill towards the main road, Changkyun feels sleepy no more. 

Hoseok’s house. Soft pink ceiling lamps, aromatic candles, a vase with red roses on the tables. Hyunwoo wipes his mouth with a napkin, thanks Hoseok for dinner they made together. Without another word he gets up to wash the plates. Hoseok approaches from behind. 

His hand reaches for Hyunwoo’s shoulder. Turning off the tap, Hyunwoo turns around and crinkles his eyes in a smile. He throws one more thank you his way and points towards the door.

See you tomorrow, he says and leaves. Hoseok sighs with so much exasperation he accidentally grows cyclamens out of his hair. 

Kihyun comes home in the middle of the night to Changkyun playing video games in the dimmed room. When the other looks up from the screen to greet his flatmate, his jaw dislocates. “No,” Changkyun gravely says, dropping the controller on the floor. “No.”

Taking off his shoes, Kihyun straightens with an overly excited glint in his eyes. “Not sleepin’ yit?” He asks cheerfully. 

“No, you did not,” Changkyn croaks out. “Tell me you didn’t.”

“Hoo was yer day?” Kihyuns starts walking towards the kitchen, a hint of an obnoxiously satisfied smile still lingering on his lips, and Changkyun, taking in the other’s widely-spaced gait and a cashmere turtleneck he’s never ever seen on the man before, jumps over the backrest of the couch with another exclamation of ‘no’.

“Did you actually? Did you fucking actually?” He keeps interrogating, voice and expression nothing short of scandalised.

“Did whit?” Kihyun pours himself a glass of water and conceals another disgusting smile in the glass. 

“Tell me you didn’t get on with a fucking vampire?” Changkyun exclaims, almost hysterical. 

Kihyun commits a mistake. He giggles. 

“Oh, my dog, you fucked a vampire!” Changkyun’s voice reverberates on the verge of shouting.

“He,” Kihyun giggles again, “he did,” and grimaces in the most revolting expression of happiness ever and curls into himself with the strength of his squirming giggles. 

“God, you smell like shit,” Changkyun lashes out, smelling alcohol and vampires in the air, and massages his temples. 

Kihyun inhales with a falsetto and twirls towards Changkyun as if in a dance, leaning on his shoulder. “A-a-a-a-ah, I’m sae in loove,” he wheezes and giggles again. Changkyun shoves him off himself. 

“Don’t talk to me.”

Kihyun doesn’t even have the strength to get mad at the werewolf, he only quirks one eyebrow in amusement and blows raspberries into the glass of water. “When are ye gettin’ on with yer,” he musters a mocking expression, “ne-e-ew fo-o-o-o-u-u-u-und frie-e-e-e-end?”

Changkyun isn’t sure if he’s flushing with more anger or fluster. “M-m-min-min-minhyuk is different!”

Kihyun rolls his eyes as if he’s trying to solve an advanced math equation. “Different as in,” he’s flailing one of his tubby pointer fingers around, “nae a vampire or you’d fuck heem?”

“I’m going to bed,” Changkyun cuts in and without another word, marches to his bedroom. 

“Se-e-e-e-end her victorious, Ha-a-a-a-appy and glorious,” is the last thing Changkyun hears before slamming his door shut and turning of the heaviest rap music in his playlist. “Long to reign over us, God save the Quee-e-e-e-e-e-en!” 

At some point there comes a time when you have to speed up the events a bit. Not in realistic sense of the word, but from a literary perspective. 

Flashforward a few days. Kihyun’s onto his investigation, Hyungwon loses a lot of his sleep. Hoseok is desperate, and Hyunwoo still refuses to make friends with love deities. Jooheon insistently wouldn’t leave Gravity Mills, and we still don’t know where he lives. 

Minhyuk and Changkyun go on a couple of days, and September the 13th is in a week. A week until the Night of the Dead, and Minhyuk decides it a good time to finally kiss the werewolf of his dreams.

They make out on top of the hill, in the same place they had their first equivocal date. That night though, the date carries a much more univocal meaning, if hot, span-of-a-moment whispers such as I wanna fuck you and You’re hotter than a Fiorentina steak, are any indication of that. 

Actually, no. Let’s move back to the night it actually happens. 

Changkyun, as much as he likes to conceal it, is a real desperate romantic, and going stargazing was actually his idea. They drop Minhyuk’s motorcycle at the foot of the hill and climb the steep mound hand in hand, swinging their arms occasionally like little kids. It’s good the weather is still nice; at this time of the night, the sky is clear and still, and every single star winks at them from far away like cheeky witnesses to their romantic shenanigans. 

This time Minhyuk is playing soft jazz from the poor speakers of his phone, but in the stillness of the world around them, it’s all they ever know. Music and each other and the stars above their heads. Changkyun lays his head on Minhyuk’s shoulder, and when the vampire secretly peeks at him, the stars are reflected in his eyes. 

Minhyuk’s hand gently wanders up and down Changkyun’s back, tiptoes over the curved spine, feels every bone and every involuntary shudder of muscles. Changkyun senses the other’s fond scarlet gaze on him, sniffs love in the sweet autumn air, hears the blood the vampire drank prior boil in his stomach in the heat of the moment. He looks up; looks up and looks down to the other’s luscious, delicate lips. 

All it takes for it to happen is Changkyun raising his head ever so slightly, just enough for Minhyuk to lean down and brush their noses against each other, and they are sharing their first ever kiss. And although they may be different, both standing on completely opposite ends of the supernatural scale, they have one thing in common––they are really fucking hungry. 

Which is why Changkyun doesn’t hesitate to open his mouth and kiss louder and wetter, leave a taste of himself on Minhyuk’s lips, sneak his tongue in and teasingly glide against the other’s. Changkyun, still being a bit more human in terms of internal organ functions, feels arousal downpour from every single string of nerves in his body as soon as Minhyuk replies to his teasing with his own. He hums and breathes harder, clutches Minhyuk’s shirt between his fingers, burns from the inside and thinks he’ll die if he doesn’t start acting beyond the matters of simple mouth stimulation. 

And while Changkyun bites his lips and slides his tongue over his fangs, Minhyuk grows _thirsty_, and he wishes it was for blood. It’s like his body turns into molten gold. It stings his skin, inflames his eyes and gums, slits his fingers, and Changkyun’s hot body and rapidly beating animal heart isn’t helping him in the slightest. He lets the werewolf push him on the ground and saddle his hips, and the arousal turns almost painful when his crotch finds a nice warm slot between Changkyun’s clothed butt cheeks. 

If there is one con to being only slightly human the two of them can choose, then it would be the fact that you really, really can’t take it lightly. Oh, no, if you’re a vampire and you’re not only thirsty for blood but also for a fucking relief, you need to thrash, bite, hit and slap like it’s the last time you’ll ever get to walk this earth. If you’re a werewolf and are hiding a whole goddamn monster inside, you’ll die if you don’t let the feral out. 

It’s facts, of course, but they’re also relative to an individual. Minhyuk, for example, is actually very gentle in nature, and the other reason he ever wants to thrash around is because he loves someone so much, so much meaning so much his immortal body isn’t strong enough to contain the emotions within. And Changkyun… yeah, no, he is a monster. Once he gets into his sexy headspace, nothing can ever get him out of the state of absolute derived deliriousness. 

Nothing, apart from a phone call from Kihyun. 

“Fuck!” Changkyun groans, abruptly detaching himself from Minhyuk’s overly swollen lips and scurrying to get his phone out of his pocket. “What?” He asks, a tad bit too aggressive. Minhyuk sighs with a sort of unreadable smile and drops his head on the ground. 

“Watch your tone, Changkyun, I’ve never done a single bad thing to you,” Kihyun’s voice resonates from the shitty speakers, and then he sighs with a mix of static. “Where are you?”

“I’m an adult, I can come back home whenever I want,” Changkyun grumbles. He almost can’t breathe with the strength with which his boner is straining against his jeans. 

“Not when there’s a potential witch-slash-vampire hunter roaming the streets,” Kihyun says gravely.

Blood immediately freezes in both their veins. “What?”

“Just come home, please, I don’t want to worry about you.” There is sincerity in Kihyun’s voice, and Changkyun immediately softens. Figuratively and literally, unfortunately. 

“Fine. Will be back in twenty.” Changkyun drops the call and looks at Minhyuk with so much puppy regret, all the vampire can do is release a sunny laugh and bring him back to his lips for a comforting smooch.

They get home safely, if anyone’s interested. 

Right, now that that’s out of the way, we can finally move back (or forward) to the events happening the very next day. 

Since Kihyun decided to stay in today and finally get Hyungwon to come over (they are now dating, for some reason), Changkyun grabbed his car keys, threw a bag with spare clothes onto the backseat and sailed off into the sunny September afternoon to finish the unfinished (or, more accurately, uncommenced) deed with his vampire crush. 

Everyone deemed it safe to go outside during the day since no one ever attacks anyone when the sun is still up, so putting all their high hopes on the mysterious fedora man, the gang of the main characters scatters around town doing their own business. Hoseok is still grieving his poor choice of a love interest––not that Hyunwoo is poor, or anything, it’s just that at the end of every goddamn day, they are back to zero, and there’s only this many days one can live with an unrequited crush––oh, and what’s even more bitter than the bitterest chocolate in the world, is that Hyunwoo totally-definitely-absolutely-without a doubt-obviously likes him too, but he doesn’t like love deities, and love deities don’t like him, so he prefers to live his life pretending like love in general doesn’t exist––well, he knows about Kihyun and his newfound relationship, how could he not, really, Kihyun just wouldn’t shut up––can you blame him though, when Hyungwon is the way he is, so handsome and magnificent and knows so much about the sexiest things in the world like history and art and cuisine and film and even politics, god, he wears pyjamas to sleep (when he is not too tired to change) and cries when Kihyun brings him Hoseok’s flowers, and not to mention he fucks like a man who’s truly lived as much as he did, and Kihyun really can’t help but fall more and more into this vampire trap every goddamn day, and––when did Changkyun manage to arrive to Minhyuk’s mansion?

“I hope you like flowers!” Minhyuk cheerfully says behind a massive bouquet as soon as Changkyun opens the front door.

“Oh, fuck, there’s so much,” Changkyun notes, more impressed than anything else, really, and carefully moves the bouquet to the side to find the other guy’s face and leave him a smooch on the lips. He isn’t sure if they’re supposed to do that yet, but if it leads to Minhyuk dropping the flowers on the floor and immediately pressing Changkyun against the wall in a fervent makeout session, then he will do it until his lips fall off. 

They grow horny in seconds. 

“Do you wanna,” Minhyuk breathes into Changkyun’s neck in between wet kisses, “come to my room?”

Changkyun is trying not to moan is out. “Fuck yeah,” he exhales, voice too deep for anyone’s good, and lets Minhyuk take him by the hand and lead him upstairs. 

The bedsheets are pink, that’s the first thing the werewolf notices. The bed itself is massive, the walls are soft peach, the floor is covered by the fluffies carpet and it smells like flowers and all the things nice. Changkyun shrugs and unceremoniously plops on the bed, bouncing a little on the mattress. 

“You live like a prince,” he casually notices.

Minhyuk comes to stand between his legs and kisses him again. “Maybe I am one.” But by the way he ushers Changkyun to scramble towards the headrest, by the way he sits on top of him and kisses him and kisses him and kisses him, by the way he releases the raspiest quiet moans from simple grinding against each other, anyone can tell he is anything but. 

And Changkyun grabs him everywhere, bites his lips and teases his tongue, breathes so harshly it’s a wonder he hasn’t popped a lung yet, and Minhyuk sucks in every reaction like he drinks a blood bag empty. What he is thirsting after now, however, is a little bit of warm tanned flesh under his palms.

They throw Changkyun’s shirt over his head together, and then the werewolf hurriedly shifts around to take off his pants. Minhyuk decides to hide his endeared smile behind the action of taking off his own clothes. The endearment doesn’t last long––the second Changkyun is fully naked and ready to conquer the world (Minhyuk’s lap), the vampire’s eyes flash like rubies, blood red and crystal clear as they take in the other’s figure. 

God, he’s magnificent. 

Minhyuk brings Changkyun closer to himself by the hip, letting the other’s hard, flushed, proudly standing, girthy cock brush against his crotch. And as much as Minhyuk wants to watch it get slick and glistening with precum, as much as he wants to feel how physically and scientifically hot his gentle skin is against his palm, he looks up at Changkyun’s stoic sexy face, gives him a smile and nuzzles right under his chin. 

How werewolves are attracted to the Moon, the same way vampires always find their way to pulsing purple veins on their victims’ necks. And, goodness gracious, if Changkyun doesn’t have the sweetest neck in the world.

A short gasp leaves the werewolf’s lips when Minhyuk gifts his throat column a tender kiss, and another, and another, and as he travels up and down the beating arteries on the side, Changkyun’s limbs start twitching ever so slightly at the sensation. 

And then Minhyuk brings his hand to the back of Changkyun’s head, and everything changes in a blink. Changkyun shivers and gasps, parting his mouth, and rubs into the other’s palm, asking for more intense scratches. And Minhyuk provides, digs his blunt fingers into soft hair and makes Changkyun hums from some otherworldly pleasure no vampire can ever understand. 

And then Minhyuk decides to try out something else and attaches his lips to Changkyun’s jawline, kissing softly. Changkyun squirms, and squirms even more when Minhyuk brings his spare hand to his cheek and pinches it as if he were a chubby baby. With two sets of fingers firmly scratching the back of his head and endearingly circling his cheek and gentle damp lips wandering all over his neck and jaw, Changkyun grows putty in the other’s hands, so lost in the feeling he can’t pay no attention to his cock leaking onto the vampire’s stomach. 

Minhyuk bites the tender skin on his neck, traps it between his front teeth (the only safe teeth he’s got) and sucks, sucks to the point the spot grows dark-dark purple and Changkyun moans, moans so sweetly Minhyuk has no choice but to continue marking him. 

“You’re like a dog,” he murmurs.

It takes Changkyun a few seconds to formulate his words. “I technically am,” he breathes out, parts his mouth and sticks his tongue out. 

Sticks his tongue out. Minhyuk would like to point it out. 

And the idle pants that leave Changkyun’s mouth make the vampire straighten abruptly and lightly bite the shell of his ear, and all the werewolf does in return is heave louder and drag his grown nails down Minhyuk’s back. If he really gets excited about such teasing like a puppy, then it wouldn’t hurt to try to do this, Minhyuk briefly thinks and brings his hands to Changkyun’s relaxed tummy. 

He almost wheezes, Changkyun, he pants so harshly with his tongue still out and jerks on his lap that Minhyuk needs a second to check that the other is definitely alright. Turns out, he is more than alright, judging by the curl of a mindless smile in the corners of his open mouth and pure sparkles of bliss in his eyes. 

Minhyuk smiles too and proceeds to lightly scratch the little roll of a stomach, so lightly it feels more like a loving caress than pets. But Changkyun giggles. Changkyun giggles and jiggles his right leg. 

“Don’t tickle,” manages to let out through an incredibly pleased titter.

Minhyuk can’t hold it back anymore and shoves Changkyun back on the bed, hovers over him and bites his skin wherever he can reach. Leaves bruises on his collarbones, draws wet patterns over his chest, nibbles on his nipples, all to the tune of hoarse moans leaving Changkyun’s mouth. He doesn’t seem as innocently excited anymore; his animalistic arousal announces its return with a twitching cock. 

But Minhyuk can’t help but feel gooey fluttering feelings in his chest at the sight of the other’s body, at the little red lines he left on his stomach, at the heat he can _see_ rise up from his skin. And so he blows raspberries on Changkyun’s tummy, as inappropriate as it may be in the given situation, and gets an even more inappropriate reaction than the action should have inflicted.

Raising slightly over the rumpled pillow, Changkyun gives him a dangerous stare. “You do realise I will go rabid if you keep doing this,” he states, rather than asks, and Minhyuk only smiles into his stomach.

“Maybe that’s what I want,” and proceeds to nip on the inside of his thighs. 

Changkyun groans in response to each stimulation, overly horny and also disappointed that Minhyuk is so close to his dick and yet is doing nothing about it. He’s got such a pretty face between his legs, those ruby vampire eyes and soft petal lips, sunken cheeks that would bulge so much were he to swallow him whole, and long, goodness gracious, overly long fingers gripping his legs with such careless strength it would break Changkyun were he just a human. He pitifully moans to his own imagination.

A thought sparks in Minhyuk’s head. “Do you also like it from behind?” He asks, rising on his knees and over the werewolf.

“Fuck yeah, fuck me whichever way you want,” Changkyun almost growls back, so embarrassingly desperate to just get the release he bloody wants. 

“I can mount you,” Minhyuk says casually, like it’s something vampires do on the daily.

“Like a bitch?” 

With a pensive pout, “If you want.”

Then Changkyun abruptly tears his head from the pillow, sick feral glint back in his eyes as if he was still going through his moon phasing. “Make me your bitch then,” he rumbles, hard and crazy. 

Minhyuk breathes out with a little smile and shushes the other guy. “Calm down, pup,” he says, sliding a hand down Changkyun’s chest and causing him to lie back down and jerk from sensitivity in his nipples. 

He suddenly smiles, resigned. “Vampire-werewolf pet play, now beat that.”

Minhyuk tries to hold back a smile so hard his eyes crinkle till they are no more than a collection of lines. Changkyun takes a moment to admire the very pretty vampire towering over him and then his features harden again. 

“I like you loads, and stuff, but if you don’t do anything about me right now, I’ll throttle you.”

The other doesn’t need another reminder, and in a second he’s rummaging through his nightstand in search of lube and condoms, because as much as he is a supernatural being, they all like their comfort. 

“Fuck lube, do me now,” Changkyun groans, rubbing his butt on the sheets. 

Minhyuk grimaces at him. “I don’t think you’d like the consequences if you suddenly start,” he vaguely and unsurely gestures over his plastered form, “bleeding.”

Changkyun just groans in response, like a prisoner chained to the metal bars. Minhyuk takes it as a cue to pour a generous amount of lube on one hand and cover his fingers until they’re so slick they reflect the light of every single lamp in the bedroom. He’s a caring person, what else is there to say. 

He works Changkyun up rather carefully, although he’s already had the chance to learn that the werewolf has little to none sensitivity to pain after all transformations he’s had in life, and god, does he know how it feels when half of your bodily functions just shut down and, in return, double the intensity of other senses. In vampire-werewolf case, it always seems to be the arousal.

Minhyuk is still only busy fingering the other guy, careful but precise and stable, and Changkyun already wriggles and smashes his heels into Minhyuk’s lower back. “Come on, bloodsucker, get on with it,” he breathes out hoarsely, still panting from all the build-up he’s receiving. Well, if he says so, who is Minhyuk to refuse.

Taking his hand out and wiping it on Changkyun’s thigh, he grabs a condom, pulls it over himself, coats his cock well and comfortable, and as he is doing that, Changkyun raises his head just a teensy bit enough to see. A second later he falls back onto the pillow with a content sigh. 

“Finally a good dick,” he says.

Minhyuk stops to give him a look, but Changkyun doesn’t care and only grumbles for him to carry on. And so Minhyuk does, lifts the other’s hips with one hand and lines up, pushes ever so gently and watches Changkyun releases a little hiss. Minhyuk never took him for a pillow prince, but the werewolf clearly enjoys not putting any effort into anything whatsoever and just lets Minhyuk be, trust his vampire superstrength, hooks his ankles behind Minhyuk’s lower back and moans when he fully plants Changkyun onto himself. 

And then he waits a little bit, gives the werewolf time to adjust despite the tiny wavy movements of his hips, and starts moving, stubbornly watching the other’s every reaction. Minhyuk’s eyes are dark, almost brown with only a tinge of blood, and the grip of now both of his hands on Changkyun’s hips is insanely strong. 

“Fuck yeah,” Changkyun says again and pushes himself further than it is probably possible. “Knot me, alpha,” he mindlessly breathes out, and it forces Minhyuk forward so abruptly anyone else would have gotten a heart attack.

His face is almost genuinely aggressive. “Shut your stinky dog mouth up,” he threatens through gritted teeth and thrusts hard, hard enough to make Changkyun’s face distort in almost delirious pleasure.

And then Changkyun laughs, out of nowhere. “Oh, you’re into that,” he states like he can see Minhyuk through, which he can’t, he’s not Hyungwon, but it does little to spike the vampire up because Changkyun’s eyes are clouded and his cheeks are flushed so lustrously red Minhyuk wants to bite them. 

But instead he fucks, proper fucks Changkyun into the mattress, so strong they almost bounce off it with every pull back, and, boy, Minhyuk couldn’t be happier to have a supernatural… boy. Friend. Because he is loud, and so self-indulgent, and just takes him so good that a thought of melancholic immortality floats through his head like a loose balloon. Minhyuk is too horny and on the edge at the moment to ever think about the possibility of never fucking Changkyun like that at some point in his lifetime. 

“Spank me,” Changkyun breathes out hoarsely, voice lost to all the moans he’s let out before.

Minhyuk stops immediately. “Huh?”

The werewolf has the audacity to roll his eyes behind heavily hooded lids. “Spank me,” his head falls back, probably from what he just imagined. “Spank me ‘til I fucking bleed.”

Minhyuk can’t say he’s ever done that. “I’m a vampire.”

Changkyun almost groans in frustration but doesn’t due to, well, exhaustion. “Okay, vampire, spank me ‘til I fucking bleed, I don’t care.”

The vampire pulls out quick and careless and flips Changkyun on his stomach, to which he, instead of complaining, only moans more. “It’s not just your moon phasing, huh,” Minhyuk mutters into his ear as he helps the werewolf get on all fours. “You’re genuinely a bloodthirsty motherfucker”

Changkyun releases a little hitching laugh as Minhyuk pushes in again. “Sue me.”

There’s nothing left to say when Minhyuk sticks both of his hands to Changkyun’s amazing butt cheeks and massages them, kneads them, grips them, watches them bounce with every thrust. Smacks of skin against skin, raspy moans coming from both of them, creaking of the royal bed, and Minhyuk feels it all with double, triple, quadruple intensity, and he has no doubt Changkyun does too.

Probably why Minhyuk tries not to hold back when he lands a heavy hand on the other’s right bum cheek, and Changkyun’s pleasured almost-shout is telling him not to hold back, like, ever. He watches the flesh flush red in an uneven shape, and then slaps it again, and again, and the werewolf shivers, his elbows nearly give out and he gasps for breath. That’s probably enough, it’s starting to grow dangerously scarlet.

“More,” Changkyun wheezes. Well, who is Minhyuk to refuse.

Even when the skin starts bruising, even when purple splotches appear, even when Minhyuk starts hurting from insane desire for a drop of blood, Changkyun doesn’t seem to want to stop. He’s been neglecting his cock for the sake of torturing not only himself but Minhyuk too, he’s dragging this out for as long as he can, and the vampire can only tense up and hiss as to not let the release reach the core of his being just yet. Changkyun is fucking insatiable, even when the Moon is barely more than a crescent. 

“Bite me,” he exhales on his last breath.

Minhyuk stops and quickly wonder how he ended up in this situation. “Changkyun.”

But Changkyun holds himself up with one arm and carefully circles his other hand around the head of his cock, hissing and shivering immediately. “Do it, I heal super fast. Even my ass can hear how thirsty you are.”

That was inarguably a weird statement, but it does send Minhyuk overboard. He pulls out and sits on his knees. He isn’t sure where he picked up a trait for spontaneity from, but when he licks a stripe over the bruises on the right butt cheek in front of him, even Changkyun’s breath hitches in surprise. Minhyuk puts his hand on his own organ as well, precautiously.

And then he bites, straight up digs his fangs into the soft flesh, and hears nothing else but the blood flow directly onto his tongue. He grips one side of Changkyun’s hips and sucks, moves his lips and tongue over painfully sensitive flesh, and can’t tell what he’s doing to the other guy. And, god, does it make him feel so good.

It’s addictive, living blood, it’s addictive and bitter like one hundred percent dark chocolate, but is it bitter in the best sense of the word. Organic and sweet, it pumps Minhyuk’s entire body with energy he can’t ever get anywhere, but just like one hundred percent dark chocolate, you can’t have it all without a disturbing aftertaste burning your throat.

A plush bum is not veins on a thin neck, and the flow isn’t as smooth, and when Minhyuk feels like he might be pushing it just a bit too hard, he detaches himself carefully and stares at the bright marks left from his sharp little teeth. 

He licks over them, gathers the remaining drops of blood, and hears Changkyun moan so hoarsely and so desperately through the ring in his fingers. He straightens fast and manages to flip the other on his back again just in time before the orgasm hits him.

Changkyun cums after another short stroke, twitching and shivering and face distorted with a frown and a silently gasping mouth. And he is so beautiful like that, Minhyuk thinks before he realises he can’t hold it in anymore. All he does is carelessly remove the condom and tighten the hold around himself, and fire finally courses through his entire body, through every limb and right into the centre of his being, and he finishes with a hitched whimper, mixing their releases on the other’s stomach. 

Nothing happens for the next couple of seconds. Minhyuk collapses on the bed next to Changkyun, Changkyun doesn’t even open his eyes and blindly snuggles, and they try to come down from intense high in relative peace. 

Minhyuk feels them start to stick together. “Okay, I’ll get wipes.” He groans in his throat and gets up, quickly finds some napkins to clean them with and plops on the bed next to a lazing Changkyun. He stretches, finally satisfied, and smiles like a happy doggo. Minhyuk laughs and wipes his stomach fondly, and their crotches as well, and disregards the ball of napkins somewhere on the floor. 

His priority right now is to cuddle his… boy, and not care about things he will find on the carpet some time soon. They cuddle silently for about five minutes, mainly because Changkyun’s mind is levitating somewhere between off and ‘woof’, and it’s easier to just lie there and wait for the time to fly by. Minhyuk peeks at his happy face, notices his already fading hickeys, listens to his cheerful heartbeat and feeds off the inhuman damp warmth radiating from his tanned skin. And then he remembers. 

“Wait, how’s your butt,” he shuffles down the bed to lift Changkyun’s legs and finds the right butt cheek almost completely healthily fleshy. Just a small fading yellow bruise and sewn white cuts where his teeth were. “How are you almost healed?” Minhyuk asks, incredulous. He should ideally be affected by the intimate angle, but Changkyun’s whole strange existence fascinates him even more than a very much attractive bum area.

Changkyun breathes out with a smile. “Told ya,” he says.

Minhyuk sighs. “And, by the way, if you plan on doing this every time, then we better have a logical discussion about it, okay?”

The other only yawns and sleepily nuzzles into the pillow. “Was just testing your boundaries,” he mindlessly mumbles. Minhyuk decides it unfair and switches the pillow for his little chest under the werewolf’s cheek.

“Let’s cuddle and then shower,” he says and brings his fingers to the back of Changkyun’s head, massaging it softly. Changkyun purrs. 

Boundaries or not, the vampire can’t lie––the guy in his arms tastes really, really good. For a werewolf, that is. Must be all that chocolate milk. 

Minhyuk and Changkyun become official. Hearing the story about their bloody bedroom escapades, Hoseok pitifully crunches on his salad and gulps down his sad loneliness with a chocolate protein shake. 

“And then I drove him home, and Kihyun was like, oh my god where have you been do you know what time it is I was so worried I told you to come back before dinnertime otherwise he would’ve attacked you please don’t ever do this again or at least call me beforehand, in, like, his strong accent, you know, for a witch, he’s pretty fussy, does he experience a lot of stress? I don’t know if Hyungwon’s doing a good job at keeping him at bay, but I start to understand why Changkyun gets so rebellious sometimes, I mean, I’m an orphan too, I get this feeling of freedom––” Minhyuk rants. 

“Kihyun’s an orphan too, his mother was burned at the stake during the 90’s witch trials,” Hoseok mindlessly says, staring into the distance of his living room. “Lost a lot of people in his life, so he tends to get overbearing as to not lose any more.”

Minhyuk slumps after hearing this and resorts to chewing his crisps as to not say anything else. Hoseok lets a few beats of silence pass before he suddenly turns to Minhyuk with widened eyes. “What did you say?”

“Didn’t say anything,” Minhyukl mumbles with full cheeks. 

“Who could’ve attacked him?”

“Huh?” Minhyuk grimaces like he’s hearing English for the first time. 

“You said Kihyun said someone could’ve attacked you. Who are you talking about?” Hoseok insists, suddenly scary without a gentle lilt in his voice and biceps bulging. 

Minhyuk gulps, realising that he’s fucked up big time. “Uh, Hyungwon?..” He smiles sheepishly.

“Minhyuk.” Hoseok pressures and leans towards him. 

“Okay, okay!” The vampire exclaims and raises his arms up in surrender. “I’ll tell you, but please stop flexing!” Hoseok squints at him but drops the tight posture. Minhyuk exhales in relief. “Well, there is a theory––just a theory, okay––that we have a witch hunter in town.”

Forget Hoseok relaxing; his shoulders broaden again and his eyebrows twitch with...oh, god, anger. “What?”

Minhyuk nearly squeals but remembers that he is a vampire and hardens his stare too. “Yes, there is. And we––well, Kihyun and Hyunwoo––are trying to figure it out.”

Hoseok hands start trembling ever so slightly. “And no one found it important to tell me?” His voice grows lower than usual, but instead of anger, Minhyuk hears traceable notes of something different. 

“Well, you see, you are a very, very valuable member of the witch society in Mills, of course you are, but you have to understand us, we tried to protect you, you know how it gets with you, you get nervous and do,” Minhyuk stops and looks down at Hoseok’s hands. Frail bushes of begonias wrap around his wrists and tearfully shed gentle rosy petals onto his lap. His lip almost bulges forward in an upset frown. “...this.”

Minhyuk sighs and takes Hoseok’s prickly hands into his. “Hey, BunBun, please don’t worry.” He tenderly strokes the back of his hands with his thumbs and tries to look Hoseok in the eyes. “It’s gonna be okay, no one’s gonna attack any of us while we have all you guys to protect the town.”

And although quiet words of comfort do soothe Hoseok’s stinging skin, his eyes fill with tears, and when they slide down his cheeks and reach his chin, they fall down in small white petals. As sad and aching as it feels, Hoseok’s gift is one of a kind, Minhyuk thinks. 

He lays the witch’s head on his shoulder and kisses the crown of his head, hugs him and lulls him with reassuring silence. As soon as he gets over his initial fear, he always becomes the most enthusiastic about making plans to save the world.

Which is exactly what happens the next day when Hoseok rants to Hyunwoo over the phone and requires, demands, orders, that they all gather at Hyunwoo’s place and compile all the evidence and theories they have to get the damn hunter out of their town. 

Kihyun is gone somewhere, although he does promise to come round as soon as he can, and so Minhyuk takes the mission to escort Changkyun to their nominal headquarters with honour. He greets the werewolf by the door, takes his warm hand in his and leads him to his motorcycle, like a modern gentleman that he is. Changkyun replies to his courtship with savoury smooches on his cheeks. God, doesn’t he feel good being in a relationship with such a cutie. 

The softness for his boyfriend changes as soon as they get to Hyunwoo’s apartment. The man lets them in and runs back into the kitchen to prepare some tea-coffee for the newcomers. Hoseok is already there, sitting by the table and smiling. As Minhyuk and Changkyun take off their shoes, someone finally greets them.

“Ooh, what a pair,” a deep old twangy voice says. Changkyun looks around but it wasn’t neither Hyunwoo nor Hoseok, and there is no one else sitting in the kitchen that he can see. “The canid’s a bit weak in the head though, I can tell.” The voice comes from below, and Changkyun lowers his gaze in confusion and immediately feels his soul leave his body. 

Sitting on the floor and peering at him with its big yellow eyes, is a black cat. An alive, long, black talking cat. All Changkyun’s bodily function’s cease to work when he presses himself tight against the front door and stares at the creature with pure manly fear. The creature stares right at him with a hint of a _smirk_.

Noticing the werewolf’s hesitation, Hyunwoo peeks from the kitchen. “Oh, yes, meet Tommy, short for Autumn, my cat.”

Changkyun gulps. His palms grow clammy as he tries to hold onto the door behind him. “You have a talking cat.”

The cat chuckles. “Dogs, they are so simple-minded.”

Minhyuk reappears in his line of sight, sighs and grabs his wrist. “Come on, Changkyun, don’t be such a pussy.”

Changkyun stumbles behind him with wide terrified eyes. “Did you just try to make a joke?” He asks, scandalised. Tommy chuckles and elegantly trots behind them. 

They settle around the big oval table, Hyunwoo gives them their cups of tea, Hoseok starts a friendly conversation with Minhyuk, and Changkyun freezes in his seat, looking for the monster of the house. Bit ironic, considering that the one being a monster by dictionary definition is actually him. 

“Right, so,” Hyunwoo stands in front of a white board with a marker in hand to jot down some useful research points. “Where should we begin?”

“Does anyone actually know the guy’s name?” Hoseok asks the first important question. It’s met with silence. 

“Fedora Man,” Minhyuk confidently says after a while. Hyunwoo decides the nickname okay.

“Have none of you ever thought of asking around?” The terrifying ancient voice of Changkyun’s worst nightmares asks, sending shivers down the werewolf’s paralysed spine. A second later, Tommy jumps on the table right in front of him and starts carelessly cleaning himself.

Changkyun experiences a full-body tremble of fear. 

“Wouldn’t it be suspicious? For all we know, the Fedora Man doesn’t really show himself around too much.” Minhyuk replies to Changkyun’s sleep paralysis demon like he’s had a thousand conversations with him.

“Kihyun said something about seeing him around,” Hyunwoo butts in and finally sits down. “It means he isn’t really keen on hiding, but he is sneaky, which makes him practically invisible.”

Changkyun can’t focus on the conversation with the Frankenstein experiment gone wrong still calmly licking his paws on the table. 

“Wait,” Hoseok jumps in again. “How can we even be sure he’s after us? Maybe he’s exploring because he wants to turn down the Mayor, not burn down all the witches.”

Based on the silence in the room, the question appeared to be too difficult for the gang to answer. Then Minhyuk straightens in his seat. “Right, I think I know. Remember the Fair––sorry again, by the way, from Changkyun,” Minhyuk says in the werewolf’s stead, who is gripping his chair so tight he hands start to shake with it. “I remember smelling something, I think it was… verbena? You know, sometimes people like to give us weaknesses we don’t actually have, but I still thought it was suspicious, especially in the middle of the Fair.”

Hyunwoo stands up to write that on the board. “Good point. Didn’t Changkyun smell something too?” All eyes on the werewolf, even Tommy’s. He is absent from this world, too busy making sure the messenger of hell doesn’t attack him out of nowhere. 

“Changkyun?” Minhyuk calls him, waits a second for him to react and then just disregards him with a shake of his hand. “Useless, we need the mastermind, where’s that Kihyun?”

Think of a Devil, and he jumps right at you. Exactly after the call of his name, the front door flings open and Kihyun himself strolls in. “Here he is,” he says gloriously with a smile. 

But he didn’t come alone. Trailing behind him is a tall, fully-concealed figure made of expensive fabric, nothing but the bridge of a nose peeking between the massive sunglasses and a scarf brought up to where a mouth is supposed to be. The room grows a little tense as soon as everyone (apart from Changkyun) recognise Hyungwon under his ridiculously long white coat and a designer white wide-brim sun hat with a black ribbon around it. 

Minhyuk’s mouth falls open at first, and then he stands up abruptly and stomps to the undressing vampire. “You left the house during the daylight?” He exclaims, shocked beyond belief, to which Hyungwon just takes off his sunglasses and politely steps out of his shoes, expression a bit lost.

Swallowing, he says, “Yeah.”

The room grows a little darker as Hoseok and Hyunwoo busy themselves pulling the blinds down and turning on the ceiling lights instead. Minhyuk looks at Hyungwon, looks and steps away, approaches an unsuspecting Kihyun and solemnly extends his hand. Kihyun takes it, still beaming, and shakes it like a gentleman.

“What for?” He asks.

Minhyuk, a little defeated but nevertheless collected, nods to himself. “You got him out of the house before sunset.” He gulps. “W-well done,” ignoring the stutter, he casually goes back to his chair next to Changkyun and puts a hand on his thigh. Needless to say, Changkyun does not react.

Kihyun almost hops to the big oval table, rubbing his hands in excitement, and Hyungwon is leisurely following him. He looks even paler in white trousers and white summer blouse, and maybe that’s why Tommy finally shifts his attention from terrorising Changkyun to the very new figure. 

“Ah, Kihyun’s loverboy,” the cat purrs. Kihyun smiles and scratches him under the chin. Tommy spreads in a pleased expression and closes his eyes.

Hyungwon approaches the cat too, curious, and tentatively extends his hand. “May I?” He asks like a polite Victorian gentleman would. 

“You very much may,” Tommy croons almost flirtaseously and nuzzles under Hyungwon’s cold wide palm. Changkyun’s eyebrows twitch in distress. 

“Anyways,” Hyunwoo claps his hands, and the theory circle resumes again. Tommy deems Hyungwon and Kihyun’s company much more entertaining and settles on the vampire’s lap. Changkyun finally lets himself breathe. He keeps on guard just in case, resorted to just giving the Lucifer’s pet a side glance every ten seconds. “What can we make of our Fedora Man here?”

Kihyun clears his throat and straightens. All eyes are on him. “Well, as far as I can judge from a rather short dialogue I shared with him the other week in Hoseok’s store, and, pray, I’m not an expert––”

“Straight to the point,” Hyunwoo calmly cuts in.

Kihyun clears his throat again. “He’s probably from Texas, he knows about witchcraft and how to avoid it, stinks of burgers and old people’s home, has a gun––potentially––and definitely doesn’t like me, or Hoseok, for that matter, because I could trace his presence somewhere in the streets near my house.”

Hyunwoo writes half of that stuff down. Minhyuk frowns in deep pondering. 

“As well as that,” Hyungwon steps in, “he sneaked around my territory about a week ago. Our Sam Spade––Fedora Man, if you please––doesn’t only seem to be after witches.”

“Can someone please get the courage to ask for the guy’s name?” Hoseok asks, a little stressed. “We can’t walk around talking about a cryptic Fedora Man and actually take it seriously.”

“Maybe if he pops by the shop again, I’ll do it,” Hyunwoo says. 

“I don’t want any serial killers near my shop,” Hoseok mutters under his nose.

“Okay, so he’s a vampire-witch hunter, from Texas, he appeared in town just mere days before the Fair, he practically compromised our Fair, he knows where we live and who we are, although we don’t know where he lives or who he is, for that matter, and we all share an unspoken hypothesis that he will show up on the Night of the Dead, uninvited and with evil intentions to take some, if not all, of us down. Anything else?” Hyunwoo summarises.

“He drives a black Dodge Charger ‘68,” Changkyun says pensively out of nowhere. All eyes shift to him with lightning speed. “His plate number is TG0 R0610.” After a pause, Changkyun adds, “I think.”

While Kihyun whispers a terrified, _How did you even remember that?_ across the table, Hyunwoo frowns. “Sounds old-fashioned.”

“The car’s pretty old too, if you think about it.” Hyungwon adds.

Minhyuk finally comes to terms with his absent wonderings and turns to the table. “Why did you say he smells like old people’s home?” He asks, obviously talking to Kihyun. 

The witch shrugs. “Dunno. He just felt kinda… catsy. And stained with tobacco.” Tommy meows in offense.

This makes Minhyuk hum, but it’s all it does, because Hyunwoo’s mind is splitting in half and he has to anxiously rub his forehead until the skin is red. “I think that’s good enough for today. We should discuss the ambush plan some other time.”

They call the meeting off, and everyone goes away happily doing their own business. But before Changkyun can even follow Minhyuk into the foyer to put his shoes on, Hyunwoo holds him around the wrist and looks at him with something similar to warning. 

“Changkyun, I didn’t want to ask this since you’re a young guy and all that, but,” he leans in ever so slightly, and the werewolf gulps. “Be ready to attack during the festival. We might need your help.” Hyunwoo whispers and lets go. 

In the foyer, Minhyuk takes his hand in his with the widest smile and they go on a careless date. 

However many days later, September the 13th finally comes round the corner. Food stalls and booths are set up in front of the Town Hall, creepy skeleton garlands hang between street lanterns, citizens dressed in traditional Dracula clothes to honour the existence of vampires as this year’s theme, and the witches keep the night lay upon earth for twenty four hours. Until the sun rises again the next morning, all the buried dead are allowed to casually stroll the streets like they did when they were still alive. That is, if they were alive in the first place. 

What’s the difference between this and Halloween, you may ask? Traditionally, for old Halloween, folks wore scary clothes and lit bonfires to chase the ghosts and demons away. The Night of the Dead? We honour their poor perished souls and let them join us for dinner. 

Since neither of the protagonist gang has had any family in Gravity Mills, save for maybe Hyungwon's ancient servants, they dressed up just to chill and hang around and have a swell time with their significant others, if those are present. And to lure and ambush the Fedora Man in question, of course. 

“I ain’t wearing that,” Changkyun says with a quirked eyebrows and hands crossed over his chest. 

Kihyun, in a ridiculous black cloak with a tall neckband in the style of a Victorian coachman and in a cylinder hat, looks as ridiculous as… well, Kihyun in any situation would, in Changkyun’s honest opinion. “But look, they are original! Hyungwon kept all his attires from all the centuries he’s been through, isn’t it cool, love?”

Changkyun rolls his eyes. “You talk like him now.”

Kihyun only clicks his tongue and sighs. “Alright, stay lame and boring, if you so want, and I’m going to meet my authentic boyfriend and have the best time ever.” Right after these words leave his mouth, there’s a polite knock on the front door.

“Don’t forget the fucking ambush plan, or whatever,” Changkyun says like an unbothered teen and walks him to the foyer. 

Kihyun opens the front door with a huge smile on his face and greets Hyungwon with an excited gasp. Changkyun does stop in his tracks once the vampire comes in. Kihyun might look ridiculous in his masquerade but Devil screw anyone who says the same thing about Hyungwon.

His own cylinder hat sits ever so elegantly on his little head, and the posh gentleman coat falls ever so smoothly from his shoulders, and the bow so artistically tied in the collar costs probably more than three of Kihyun and Changkyun’s apartments. His shoes shine like pure obsidians, and scarlet silk gloves hugging his slim long fingers only invite to gently hold his hand and nothing more. 

If only he wasn’t such a weirdo for liking Kihyun, Changkyun might’ve put dibs on his first. 

The thought immediately gets scratched with a thick black sharpie when he remembers that Hyungwon is a part-time mind reader.

“See you later, Changkyun,” Kihyun waves him goodbye. “Don’t forget the plan.”

Just for the sake of it, Changkyun takes a heavy rifle from the table and shows it off like a tough guy in some Sylvester Stallone thriller. “We can always use this, you know.”

“Changkyun.” Kihyun deadpans.

“Yeah, yeah, all under control.” Changkyun rolls his eyes again and nods them both farewell.

Hyungwon slightly raises his hat and bows his head ever so politely. The werewolf whines as soon as the door closes, missing his own boyfriend. 

“Have you tried the pumpkin tarts? God, they’re amazing,” Hoseok exclaims and leads Hyunwoo to the food stall with pastries by the hand. “Have you had the hotdogs yet? Or the meat dumplings? I know what you need––mozzarella sticks but they’re shaped in a form of a skeleton and covered in bacon!” 

They’re walking around the Town Hall settlement, buying all sorts of food and stuffing their cheeks with it, while Minhyuk and Changkyun plop on the bench along the main road right next to the booths and indulge in a huge, massive, enormous pile of brownies. 

“This is the best thing I’ve ever had in years,” Changkyun mumbles through a mush of chocolate dough in his mouth. 

“You’re the best thing I’ve ever had,” Minhyuk mumbles back with the same full cheeks, and then sputters in ugly laughter at his own pick-up line. 

Hyungwon and Kihyun sit in a restaurant and sip their red wine over a basket with posh breadsticks. 

“I’ve never seen anyone crunch a breadstick with their fangs as politely as you do,” Kihyun says. 

“I’ve never seen anyone look as adorable with fake fangs as you do,” Hyungwon replies. 

Food is in the air, love is all around, blood is still in veins, but what’s of Jooheon? you may ask. Parked a good mile away from the Town Hall, Jooheon gets an arbalet out of his car and swings it over his shoulder. His long trench coat flutters behind every confident loud step he takes.

Hyunwoo turns around. Distant screaming, wild thudding of someone’s heart, cawing ravens pecking from dead bodies, someone’s familiar eyes filling with tears to the brim. The foresight flashes quick, but it paralyses him to the bone, freezes the tips of his fingers, sends shivers to his nape. 

When he blinks, a friendly cook tosses meat patties around with a cheerful shout of “Burgers! Fresh burgers! Just for two dollars!”

“What is it?” Hoseok asks, carefully touching Hyunwoo’s shoulder. 

The other swallows. “I’m not sure.”

“Is it him? Is he here?”

“I…” he hesitates. “I don’t know.”

Hoseok gently takes his hand in his. “Come on, let’s go, I wanna try the popcorn,” he nudges Hyunwoo away from the pies stall to not hold the line and gives him a reassuring squeeze. 

_My senses have never betrayed me before,_ he said. Well, Hyunwoo, here’s some news for you. The ghosts are on holiday, it’s their rightfully earned vacation, they have no business sneaking around town delivering you local gossip and whatnot. But you know what never takes a day off?

Werewolf sense. 

Just as Changkyun shoves his tenth or twentieth brownie into his mouth, a sharp tingle runs down his nape. He chokes, eyes widening in panic. He spews the remains of biscuits on the ground, coughing, wheezing, shocked down to the marrow with the distant and yet burning scent that paralyses his entire body. 

He can smell _that_ silver from miles away.

“Changkyun? Changkyun, what’s wrong?” Minhyuk asks worriedly, patting his boyfriend on the back. All the werewolf can do is inhale, just to get his breath stuck in his throat. 

It’s almost like there is a frog in his mouth that’s trying to get out, he’s trying to keep something inside, grits his teeth to not let it out. His heart thrashes in his ribcage, beastly, and he groans with heavy stomps of his feet on the ground. 

“Hit me! Hit me!” He shouts and painfully shuts his mouth again to not let it roar. Minhyuk smacks the back of his head a few times, expression growing from worried to plain terrified. Changkyun jolts back and forth on the bench like a madman, as if he’s about to explode. 

“What is it, what is it?” Minhyuk’s voice breaks. 

Changkyun shoves himself against the backrest and gawks at the vampire with wide, sick eyes. 

“S-s-s-s-s…” he tries to say but can’t, spasming with another mute growl. 

“S-s-s?” S-what?”

And then Changkyun inhales sharp, his nostrils inflate, his eyes almost glint with amber. He snaps his neck forward, peering into the distance. In the nightly mist, he sees a figure. Trench coat flailing behind it, a heavy gear in one hand, and, of course, a motherfucking fedora on its head. 

“S-s-s,” he whimpers and looks at Minhyuk helplessly. “S-s-si…”

Minhyuk freezes for a second. And breathes. And breathes. And breathes. His eyes widen. 

“Silver.” He exhales petrifying realisation. 

With a violently shaking hand, Changkyun tries to point at himself. 

“Silver bullets,” Minhyuk finally catches up and stares into the mist as well. Changkyun groans animalistically, angry veins popping along his neck, and finally growls into the moonless sky. 

“Shit!” Minhyuk jumps to his feet just as the werewolf is pushed against the bench by invisible forces and breaks it in half. 

Hyunwoo finally hears the warning call. 

“Bloody hell,” he mutters and runs. 

Hoseok drops a bitten hot dog on the ground. “Blimey!” He exclaims and runs after the other man. 

Without even connecting on a straight thoughtful line to the medium, Kihyun hears the call too. 

“Bawbag!” He gets to his feet so fast the chair behind him screeches and everyone in the restaurant glances at him weirdly. 

Hyungwon understands him without a second of doubt. “Fuck!” And off they run. 

Where the action is happening, food stalls are still scattered all around. Same old good cooks and sellers escape for their lives when the werewolf walks onto the road and snarls. They don’t see what’s happening, don’t know what’s going on, but there is one thing they know for sure––don’t get in the way of the monster that unintentionally ruined everyone’s favourite Witches Fair. 

Jooheon finally steps out of the mist. Changkyun snarls louder. Jooheon smirks in one corner of his mouth until a dimple hollows threateningly. Changkyun drags one claw against the asphalt like a bull. Minhyuk gulps.

Since the author is a self-proclaimed screenwriter, _Season of the Witch_ starts playing in the background. 

Before Jooheon can aim his arbalet, Changkyun sets into an inhumanly fast gallop, with the only intention to bite the hunter’s head off. But Jooheon charges the weapon quick and sends the first shot his way. Changkyun tumbles backwards mid-jump and lands back on his feet, the sacred silver arrowhead pierces a wooden balk holding a food stall right next to Minhyuk. Jooheon twitches his lip, and Changkyun roars.

“Changkyun, no!” Minhyuk shouts. “You will die!”

Finally rushing forward for his first attack, Changkyun aims for his shoulder and doesn’t reach it as Jooheon heavily swings the arbalet against his face. He steps back, shakes his head, and growls again. There is another shout of ‘Changkyun, no!’ behind him but the werewolf keeps himself low on all fours and snarls at Jooheon threateningly. They’re staring at each other, breathing hard. Staring and staring, mad amber eyes into dark and glinting ones, still half-hidden under the damn fedora.

Jooheon raises his arbalet slowly, already charged with another arrow. Minhyuk, seemingly miles and miles away, shakes with worry. He is a vampire, he is a superhuman, he has superspeed and superstrength, he is immortal and he can easily take the hunter down with a snap of his wrist. It’s just that he promised himself to never kill anyone again, but protecting his lovely and stupidly reckless boyfriend seems like a good reason to break that rule. 

He starts running, and no one can stop him. 

Except for another vampire, at the thought of which he groans when Hyungwon’s arms wrap around him and hold him back. “Let me go!” He screeches, trying to wriggle out of the other’s deadly grip. 

“You are not going down with the Night of the Dead tonight, not on my watch.” Hyungwon says and squeezes his tighter. Minhyuk doesn’t even manage to wrestle him when the witch squad finally deigns to arrive, all flushed and panting and sweating.

Hyunwoo stares at the scene on the road with impossible disbelief. “No,” he whispers, “no, it wasn’t meant to happen.”

A millisecond before Jooheon presses the trigger, Kihyun angrily sways his hand, and the arbalet shoots upwards, entirely missing Changkyun, who leaps onto him again and finally shoves him on the ground. But Jooheon is really fucking strong, and he stabs his hands into Changkyun’s throat and tries to keep his salivating canineful mouth away from his face.

Kihyun boils, steam rises from the tips of his ears, veins pop on his neck and forehead, and he clenches his fists. “No one,” he steps onto the road, “can ruin our yearly celebrations,” he conjugates a protection bubble in his hands, “two times in a row!” The bubble dashes along the road and envelops Changkyun in a second. 

Jooheon raises his head to look at Kihyun with incredibly contempt and mouths something along the lines of ‘oh, fuck off’ and shoots in the witch’s direction. Kihyun sways his hand again, and the arrow falls. He keeps walking.

“Kihyun,” Hyunwoo warns, “Kihyun, don’t do this, he will attack you.” Kihyun rightfully ignores him.

“No, he won’t!” Minhyuk finally sets himself free and looks around the guys with almost tearful eyes. “He is not here for you, he’s here for––!”

But right at that moment, Changkyun breaks the protection bubble and jumps onto Jooheon again. You see, Changkyun is clever; you leave a spellbook on the table, and he takes it and reads it and magically learns all the spells he might need to use against his witchy flatmate. And as much as he is clever, he may not necessarily be the most logical person in his beast form, because as soon as he is vulnerable again, he plants himself onto a little knife Jooheon has been keeping up his sleeve.

The painful howl he releases makes Kihyun stop in his tracks with widened eyes. And injured, Changkyun makes even more hotheaded decisions, such as flail his arms around in desperate attempts to claw at Jooheon’s face, but only manages to ruin the damn trench coat and hurt his shoulder. The shoulder on the side with the arbalet.

And when Changkyun does that, Jooheon presses the trigger, aimless and accidental and self-defensive, and yet the shot is perfect enough to pierce right through Kihyun’s shoulder. It shocks him, shocks him and shoves him so hard he bumps against the public toilet stalls meters away. 

No one says anything for a good few seconds. Changkyun scrambles back on his feet and lets the wound bleed onto the ground; Jooheon stares at Kihyun with eyes rounded almost comically. Hoseok inhales sharply; Minhyuk shakes his head once and look at Jooheon with so much ice it freezes the entire street. 

And then the two of them run towards the hunter with terrifying speed. 

Hyungwon also starts to run but stops on the level with Kihyun, sitting on the ground against the toilet stall and gripping his shoulder around the arrow. Hyungwon watches him with worry, almost makes a move to rush towards him, but Kihyun shortly shakes his head, although the pain is terrifyingly obvious on his face. 

“No, I’ll be fine.” He says, glancing up for a brief moment and back at Hyungwon. The vampire grits his teeth but nods. 

The three of them, excluding Changkyun who’s being continuously pushed backwards, fight an incredibly agile Jooheon. Hyunwoo stares at the scene with a concerned frowned, eyes clouded with half-vision, half-reality he couldn’t predict, wasn’t supposed to predict. He knows no one will die; but he doesn’t know how much blood is being spilled on the day it wasn’t meant to.

Kihyun inhales, relaxing. He breathes slow and deep, and then looks up into the sky. His irises turn white, and he exhales with a little cloud of fog that twirls around him and dashes towards the stars. With acquired strength, he pulls the arrow out of an open wound, throws it somewhere on the ground, and tenses. Incantation runs through his head without him having to move his tongue. Torn skin sews together, every ripped tissue in his limb connects, his entire shoulder heals, and then he wheezes, letting the illegal magic run through him. His eyes turn back to normal. 

Through the little round hole in his blouse, he sees nothing but healthy skin.

Back on the road, Jooheon harshly hits Hoseok in the stomach. The witch falls, and Minhyuk scuttles towards him, leaving just Hyungwon and Changkyun to fight off this undying bastard. Jooheon focuses on the vampire, a blazing whip he somehow hid under his coat in the other hand like he knows that Hyungwon is sensitive to fire and sun. 

And then Changkyun jumps forth again with another roar, except this time Hyungwon catches him in his arms, and rather easily, if he can judge. Someone else is clutching the werewolf from the other side, and through layers of grey fur Hyungwon sees a smiling Kihyun. 

“Have a break, dumbarse,” he says and together with his boyfriend, sends Changkyun flying until he crashes into another food stall and breaks it in half. It seems to be the only way to knock him unconscious. 

Jooheon gets ready to attack again, but with the new surge of life strength, Kihyun conjugates a new protection spell so strong that it has an exploding effect. That is, it sends everyone, including him, flying into different directions as the bubble expands quick and precise straight from his hands. 

For a while, the road is cleared, and all there is to the sudden scary silence is humming fog and pitifully crumbling wooden balks. 

Minhyuk gets to his feet first. He quickly runs to the tumbled food stall and finds Changkyun under a fallen grilling stand. The werewolf groans and sits back against the mess he made, and Minhyuk crouches next to him and wipes a smudge of dirt on his cheek. He is all dirty and dusty, but at least he’s safe and has all his limbs attached. The knife wound remained on his beast body. But at least ripped trackies remained on his human legs. 

“How the fuck am I alive,” Changkyun groans and grimaces, touches his jaw and tries to move it around. Minhyuk silently laughs and curls into himself next to his boyfriend, one arm flung protectively over his shoulders.

He hold grows firmer once he hears wide heavy steps approaching the ruins. Minhyuk looks up with premature anger, peers into Jooheon’s hidden eyes, brings a still moaning Changkyun closer to himself. The arbalet is pressed against his shoulder, trench coat ripped and dirty. Minhyuk almost growls in his throat, but then Jooheon raises his head enough to show his eyes, and the vampire stops. 

Hyunwoo comes running next with Hoseok in hand. They stand to the side, too exhausted and scared to attack the undying Fedora Man from behind, and keep themselves on guard. It’s a little suspicious that they are all vulnerable and open from all sides, and the hunter makes no move to use it in his advantage. 

Kihyun finally appears, panting. Hyungwon materialises next to him. No one is moving; all eyes are on Jooheon’s next move. It’s weirdly tense, being so close to the hunter and not trying to attack him, but something about demeanor seems to have changed, so the gang is waiting. Hyungwon takes a detour around their still gathering and stands next to Minhyuk and Changkyun, still sitting on the ground, and tries to peer into his soul. He can’t.

And then Jooheon looks around them with a _pout_ on his lips, with his lower lip jut forward and eyes looking scarily and oddly disappointed. And maybe even disgusted. Disgusted with disappointment. 

He looks back down at Minhyuk and Changkyun. “That’s a werewolf?” He asks, twitching his upper lip and curving his eyebrows into the fedora. 

The rest exchange confused looks between each other. “He’s… a werewolf,” Kihyun hesitantly confirms. 

Pity written all over his face, Jooheon grimaces. “He’s a werewolf?” His high-pitched voice grows even higher in pitch. 

“He’s a werewolf,” the other guys repeat in their own time. 

Jooheon’s face distorts to an unrecognisable extent. “He’s a werewolf?!” He sounds almost scandalised, eyes wide and lines appearing around his mouth. 

The gang all nod and roll their eyes. “A werewolf,” they say again, sighing. 

“He?!” Jooheon exclaims, and Hyungwon allows himself to inhale impolitely sharp. 

“Can we stop now,” he cuts in. “Why are you pointing a gun at a werewolf?” He asks, civil and logical. Minhyuk wants to answer in Jooheon’s stead, but the hunter looks at Hyungwon almost offended and replies without skipping a beat. 

“Who else am I supposed to be pointing my gun at?” His voice sounds on the verge of hysterical and terrifically appalled, so appalled he probably needs a few extra exclamation marks to his question. 

Everyone releases a few confused ‘uhh’s, glancing around at each other again. “There is a witch right in front of you?” Hyungwon helpfully offers, nodding in Kihyun’s direction with a beautifully curved eyebrow.

Kihyun wiggles his fingers as a hello. 

Jooheon proper scrunches his face. “Okay? And?” He reeks of offense. 

Hyunwoo steps forward. “Aren’t you a witch hunter?”

Jooheon’s eyes widen dramatically again. “Me?” He exclaims, but his exclamations have long approached the border of shrieking. “I can’t care less about witches _or_ vampires, for that matter, I’m from Texas, I’m here for werewolves!” 

Kihyun and Hyungwon exchange lowkey victorious glances, happy about the Texas hypothesis being proven right. And then both do a double-take and stare at Jooheon like they see him for the first time.

“Well, that’s a pity,” Changkyun says quietly and grimaces. Minhyuk lightly slaps his shoulder, telling him that it’s not time to joke around when he is the one being hunted down.

Jooheon sighs pitifully and unloads his arbalet. “Well, I was brainwashed into thinking all werewolves look like that guy over there,” he blindly nods in the direction of Hyunwoo, who blinks in confusion, “but if that’s,” now Jooheon points at Changkyun, “what I’m supposed to be dealing with,” he rests his weapon on the shoulder again, “then I’m quitting.”

Instead of taking this as an offence, everyone victoriously shouts and hugs around. Minhyuk gapes at him, Changkyun stares at him like ‘thanks, buddy’, and Jooheon looks back at him with the same disappointed pout and sighs. “You’re not even scary,” he mumbles sadly. 

Before Jooheon turns to leave into the dark where he came from, the witches quickly rid him of his multiple weapons and demand sincere apologies and vows that he never ever hunt in this town again. Jooheon surrenders.

Once he’s already back on the road and walking into the mist to guide him to his motel, Hoseok shouts for him. “Hey, what’s your name, at least?”

Jooheon turns around, the trench coat fluttering behind him. “Jooheon.” He shouts back. “Lee Jooheon.”

Hoseok shows him thumbs up and returns to helping the gang put the poor werewolf back on his feet. 

And while it’s clear yet another celebration is ruined, and not only because of Changkyun’s silver-sensing abilities, there is something else Hyunwoo’s foresight tells him. The raven of death he saw two weeks ago, isn’t the raven of death he is seeing now retreating into the night without a deadly toy in hand. Hunters don’t desecrate graves, hunters don’t eat livestock, hunters don’t give him shivers. 

And yet as he stares into absolute nothingness now, the colours and sounds that come to him are much more threatening than a catsy-smelling resigned werewolf hunter. When the sun rises again the next morning, Hyunwoo feels like not all the dead have gone back to their graves in peace. He feels like something stayed on earth that wasn’t supposed to be here in the first place.

But for now, all they can do is make sure the very next celebration––Halloween––passes by much, much smoother.

**Author's Note:**

> i promise it gets romancy in the next chapter)
> 
> hmu on twt @chaeleggiewon!!


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